r 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


^i^B- 


This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


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6   1929 


STATE  NORMAI.  SCHOOL 

LOS  AKGEI^a  CALUTQRMU 


Study  of  Child-Nature 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  STANDPOINT 


ELIZABETH  HARRISON 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  NATIONAL  KINDERGARTEN  COLLEGE,  AND  AUTHOR  OF 

"misunderstood  children,"  "THE  VISION  OF  DANTE,"  "EST  STORY 

LAND,"   "TWO  CHILDREN   OF   THE   FOOTHILLS,"   ETC. 


P'orty-Thied  Edition 


PUBLISHED   BY 

THE  NATIONAL  KINDERGARTEN  COLLEGE 
Chicago 


1914 


COPYRir.HT,  isqo. 
By  Elizabeth  Harrison 

CHICAGO 


K.  K.  DONNELLEY  &  SONS  CO.,  CHICAGO 


\\65 


My  Own  Beloved  Mother, 

ro  whom  i  owe  all  the  richness  and  joy  which 

come  from  a  glad.  happy  childhood,  do 

i   dedicate   this   my    effort   to 

help  other  mothers. 

Elizabeth  Harrison. 

Chicago,  November  20,  i8go 


PREFACE. 


These  Talks  for  Mothers  and  Teachers  were 
given  before  my  classes  in  Chicago  and  else- 
where. They  are  now  published  at  the  earnest 
request  of  the  inetnbers  of  those  classes^  and  are 
in  nearly  the  same  form  as  ijchen  given^  'which 
accounts  for  the  member  of  anecdotes  illustrat- 
ing  different  points^  as  tvell  as  for  the  fre- 
quency of  personal  reminiscence.  Fully  aware 
of  their  many  defects^  btit  knowing  well  that 
"  Charity  cover eth  a  multitude  of  sins^''  I  give 
them  zvith  a  loving  heart  to  the  mothers  oj 
America.  I  hope  that  the  thought  underlying 
them,  tnay  be  as  helpful  to  others  in  the  under- 
standing of  little  children  as  it  has  been  to  me. 
I  trust  that  these  pages  may  lead  each  reader 
to  a  deeper  study  of  FroebcVs  thought. 

E.  H. 


CONTENTS. 


Preface. 

Introduction. 


r 


The  Body 


Chapter  I. 


Chapter  II 


Chapter  III. 


Chapter  IV. 


The  Mind,    j     Chapter  V. 


Chapter  VI. 


Chapter  VII. 


The  Soul.    - 


Chapter  VIII. 


Chapter  IX. 


{ 


The  Instinct  of 
Activity,  or  the 
Training  of  the 
Muscles. 

The  Instinct  of 
Investigation,  or 
THE  Training  of 
THE  Senses. 

The  Instinct  of 
Power,  or  the 
Training  of  the 
Emotions. 

The  Instinct  of 
Love,  or  the 
Training  of  the 
Affections. 

The  Instinct  of 
Continuity,  o  r 
the  Training  of 
the  Reason. 

The  Instinct  of 
Justice,  or  Right 
and  Wrong  Pun- 
ishments. 

The  Instinct  of 
Recognition,  o  r 
the  Training  of 
THE  Will. 

The  Instinct  of 
Reverence,  o  r 
the  Training  of 
the  Worship. 


f  The  Instinct  OF 
J  Imitation,  OR  the 
I  Training  of  the 
I    Faith. 


INTKODUCTION. 


In  the  educational  world  is  growing  the 
realization,  in  a  practical  way,  that  "  The  hand 
that  rocks  the  cradle  rules  the  world."  The 
importance  of  the  first  years  of  the  child's  life 
is  beginning  to  be  acknowledged;  his  physical 
welfare  has  become  a  recognized  study,  for  it  is 
seen  that  the  health  and  strength  of  maturity 
depends  upon  this  early  growth.  Until  the  time 
of  Froebel,  the  founder  of  the  Kindergarten 
system,  scarcely  any  thought  was  given  to  the 
right  or  wrong  training  of  the  infant's  natural 
instincts;  few  people  dreamed  that  this  had 
aught  to  do  with  the  development  of  character 
in  succeeding  years. 

The  child's  manifestations  of  these  inborn 
instincts  have  been  laughed  at,  played  with, 
and  even  related  as  interesting  anecdotes  by 
the  fond  mother, — the  thought  that  they  are 
worthy  of  serious  study  seldom  entering  the 
mind  of  the  average  parent.  It  is  this  study 
to  which  Froebel  invites  the  mother.  He  calls 
it  "  The  Science  of  Motherhood." 

9 


10  Introduction. 

Investigation  of  apparently  insignificant  in- 
stincts shows  them  to  be  the  germs  of  world- 
wide and  ever-enduring  truths.  Hence  the 
importance  of  the  Kindergarten  study.  The 
mother  is  aided  by  it  in  the  care  and  under- 
standing of  her  young  child  when  the  bond 
between  them  is  so  strong  that  instinct  is  apt 
to  give  the  right  impulse;  she  is  also  greatly 
assisted  in  the  comprehension  of  her  child's 
more  mature  years,  after  the  growth  of  his 
individuality  has  somewhat  separated  them. 
"  The  child  is  father  to  the  man  "  in  character 
as  well  as  in  physical  development.  We  readily 
acknowledge  this  when  we  admit  that  super- 
stitions cling  to  the  wisest  minds, — such  as  a 
distaste  for  beginning  a  piece  of  work  on 
Friday;  an  uneasy  sensation  when  the  salt- 
cellar is  upset;  a  dislike  to  see  the  new  moon 
over  the  left  shoulder,  and  other  irrational 
prejudices.  When  we  remember  that  all  one's 
after-life  cannot  entirely  obliterate  them,  do  we 
not  realize  how  lasting  are  early  impressions  V 

Froebel  has  said:  "The  destiny  of  the 
nations  lies  far  more  in  the  hands  of  women — 
the  mothers — than  in  the  hands  of  those  who 
possess  power,  or  those  who  are  innovators, 
who  seldom  understand  themselves.  IVe  must 
cultivate  wometi,  who  are  the  educators  of  the 


Introduction.  11 

human  race,  else  a  new  generation  cannot 
accomplish  its  task." 

One  of  the  greatest  lines  of  the  world's  work 
lies  here  before  us :  the  understanding  of  little 
children,  in  order  that  they  may  be  properly 
trained.  Correctly  understood,  it  demands  of 
women  her  highest  endeavor,  the  broadest 
culture,  the  most  complete  command  of  herself, 
and  the  understanding  of  her  resources  and 
environments.  It  demands  of  her  that  she 
become  a  physician,  an  artist,  a  teacher,  a 
poet,  a  philosopher,  a  priest.  In  return,  it 
gives  her  an  insight  into  science,  into  history, 
into  art,  into  literature,  into  human  nature, 
such  as  no  other  culture  can  command,  because 
each  of  these  realms  has  to  be  entered  that  its 
wealth  may  be  conquered  as  an  aid  in  rightly 
understanding  the  little  child  entrusted  to  her 
care,  not  for  the  added  glory  it  will  bring  to 
her. 

The  following  facts  place  this  study  of 
child-culture  upon  the  broad  basis  of  a 
science. 

Fikst:  The  child  bears  within  himself 
instincts  which  can  be  trained  upward  or 
downward. 

Second:  These  instincts  give  early  mani- 
festation OF  their  existence. 


12  Introduction. 

Thibd:  The  mother's  loving  guidance 
can  be  changed  fllom  uncertain  instinct  into 
unhesitating  insight. 

Let  me  illustrate  this  change  of  instinct 
into  insight.  A  young  mother,  who  had  been 
studying  Froebel  for  some  months,  placed  her 
four-year-old  boy  in  my  Kindergarten.  I  soon 
saw  that  he  was  suffering  from  self-conscious- 
ness. In  a  conversation  with  the  mother,  I 
told  her  that  I  had  discovered  in  her  child  a 
serious  obstacle  to  mental  growth,  viz.,  self- 
consciousness.  "What  is  the  cause  of  it?" 
said  she.  "  If  the  child  had  not  such  a 
sensible  mother,"  I  replied,  "  I  should  say  that 
he  had  been  '  shown  off '  to  visitors  until  the 
habit  of  thinking  that  every  one  is  looking  at 
him  has  become  fixed  in  his  mind."  Instantly 
the  blood  mounted  to  her  face  and  she  said: 
"  That  is  what  has  been  done.  You  know  that 
he  sings  very  well ;  last  winter  my  young  sister 
frequently  had  him  stand  on  a  chair  beside 
the  piano  and  sing  for  guests.  I  felt  at  the 
time  that  it  was  not  right,  but  if  I  had  known 
then  what  I  now  do,  I  would  have  died  rather 
than  have  allowed  it." 

Instinct  is  often  overruled  by  others;  insigtit 
makes  the  mother  stand  invincible  for  her 
child's  right  to  be  properly  brought  up. 


CHAPTER   1. 


THE  BODY. 


THE   mSTINCT   OF   ACTIVITY,   OR    THE   TRAININQ 
OF   THE   MUSCLES. 

All  little  cliildren  are  active ;  constant 
activity  is  nature's  way  of  secm^ing  physi- 
cal development.  Physiological  psychology 
1  teaches  that  every  unpression  made  upon  the 
child's  sensor-nerves  by  the  outer  world  de- 
mands an  organic  response  from  the  motor- 
nerves.  The  organs  of  respiration,  circulation 
and  digestion  use  their  needful  share.  The 
rest  of  this  nervous  power  is  expended  by  the 
infant  in  tossing  his  limbs  about,  in  creeping 
and  crawling;  by  the  growing  boy  in  climbing 
and  running,  by  the  young  girl — who  must  not 
climb  or  run — in  squirming  and  giggling,  thus 
gaining  for  her  muscles,  in  spite  of  prohibition, 
some  of  the  needed  exercise.  Making  a  rest- 
less child  "keep  still"  is  a  repression  of  this 
natural  response,  and  irritates  the  whole  nervous 
system,  causing  ill-temper,  and  general  discom- 
fort.    If  this  force  could  be  properly  expended 

13 


14  The  Instinct  of  Activity,  or 

the  child  woiikl  be  always  sunny-tempered. 
The  mother's  instinctive  feeling  that  the  rest- 
lessness of  her  cliild  is  necessary  to  its  well- 
being  gives  her  strength  to  endure  what  would 
be  unendurable  confusion  and  noise  to  any  one 
who  has  not  this  maternal  instinct.  But  the 
-wise  mother  who  has  changed  this  dim  instmct 
into  limiinous  insight  turns  the  riot  into  joyous, 
happy  play  or  other  wholesome  activity.  By 
this  course  not  only  does  she  lessen  the  strain 
upon  her  own  nerves,  but  what  is  of  more  im- 
portance, often  avoids  a  clash  of  will  power 
between  herself  and  her  child,  such  clashing 
of  wills  being  always  fraught  with  harm  to 
both. 

In  order  that  this  acti\dty,  generally  first 
noticed  in  the  use  of  the  hands,  might  be 
trained  into  habits  leading  toward  the  ideal  end 
rather  than  be  allowed  to  degenerate  into  wrong 
and  often  degrading  uses,  Froebel  arranged  his 
charming  set  of  finger  games  for  the  mother  to 
teach  her  babe  -while  he  is  yet  in  her  arms, 
thus  establishing  the  right  acti\aty  before  the 
wrong  one  can  assert  itself. 

In  such  little  songs  as  the  following: 

"This  is  the  mother,  good  and  dear, 
This  the  father,  with  hearty  cheer, 
This  is  the  brother,  stout  and  tall, 


The  Training  of  the  Muscles.  15 

This  is  the  sister,  who  plays  with  her  doll, 
And  this  is  the  baby,  the  pet  of  all. 
Behold  the  good  family,  great  and  small!" 

the  cliild  is  led  to  personify  his  fingers  and  to 
regard  them  as  a  small  but  united  family  over 
which  he  has  control.  Of  course,  this  song 
can  be  varied  to  suit  the  phase  of  family-life 
with  which  he  is  surrounded.     For  instance: 

"  This  is  the  auntie,  who  wears  a  bright  shawl, 
This  is  the  brother,  who  plays  with  his  ball," 

or  like  rhythmical  descriptions.  The  little  fin- 
gers may  be  put  to  sleep,  one  by  one,  with 
some  such  words  as  these: 

"  Go  to  sleep,  little  thumb,  that's  one, 
Go  to  sleep,  pointing  finger,  two. 
Go  to  sleep,  middle  finger,  three. 
Go  to  sleep,  ring  finger,  four, 
Go  to  sleep.  little  finger,  five. 
I  take  them  and  tuck  them  snugly  all  in  bed,  sound  asleep. 
Let  naught  disturb  them." 

To  the  little  fingers  thus  quietly  closed 
against  the  palm  of  the  hand  can  be  sung  some 
soft  lullaby,  and  the  quieting  effect  upon  the 
babe  is  magical. 

Once  while  travelling  upon  a  railway  train, 
I  watched  for  a  time  the  vain  endeavors  of  a 
young  mother  to  persuade  her  restless  boy  of 
two  years  to  be  undressed  for  bed.     Finally  I 


16  The  Instinci  of  Activity^  or 

went  to  the  rescue,  and  began  to  talk  to  the 
little  fellow  about  the  queer  finger  family  that 
lived  on  his  hand,  I  gave  him  a  name  for  each 
member  of  this  family,  and  in  a  few  minutes 
suggested  that  they  were  sleepy  and  that  we 
had  better  put  them  to  bed.  He  was  delighted. 
Singing  softly  the  ditty  just  mentioned,  I 
showed  him  how  to  fold  first  one,  then  another 
of  the  chubby  fingers  in  seeming  sleep.  When 
we  had  finished  he  was  very  still ;  the  pleasing 
activity  had  called  his  thoughts  away  fi-om  his 
capricious,  willful  little  self;  he  had  something 
to  do.  "Now,"  said  I,  "do  you  think  you  can 
undress  without  waking  these  babies  ? "  He 
nodded  a  pleased  assent.  The  mother  took 
him  off  and  in  a  short  time  came  back  and 
thanked  me,  saying,  that  while  he  was  being 
undressed  his  thoughts  had  been  concentrated 
upon  keeping  his  fingers  undisturbed,  and  that 
he  had  dropped  asleep  with  his  hand  tightly 
closed.  She  was  astonished  at  this  power  of 
the  game,  yet  the  device  was  simple ;  the  nerv- 
ous, restless  activity  of  the  child  was  turned 
from  a  wrong  channel  into  a  right  one.  By 
many  such  means,  Froebel  would  have  the 
baby's  fingers  seem  to  him  tiny  people  of  whom 
he  has  charge. 


The  Training  of  the  Muscles.  17 

When  these  games  are  emphasized  with  an 
older  child  who  can  ivork  with  his  hands,  there 
is  danger  of  his  separating,  in  thought,  him- 
self from  his  fingers,  making  them  alone  res- 
ponsible for  their  deeds,  and  of  his  setting 
entirely  aside  his  own  obligation  in  the  mat- 
ter. For  example:  In  my  Kindergarten  there 
was  a  boy  who  had  a  very  bad  habit  with  his 
hands,  a  fault  not  vincommon  with  children  of 
all  classes.  At  once  I  laid  more  stress  upon 
the  finger  families  and  his  care  of  them.  After 
a  day  or  two  had  passed,  I  noticed  that  he  was 
not  following  directions  in  sewing  his  card. 
"Oh,  dear!"  I  said,  "how  came  these  crooked 
lines  here  ?  " 

"Well,  those  fingers,  they  did  it.  They 
don't  care  how  they  work,"  was  his  reply.  I 
saw  that  I  had  brought  out  too  much  their  in- 
dividuality, and  too  little  his  accountability 
for  them.  "  Ah,"  I  answered,  "but  who  has 
charge  of  this  family?  You  must  help  the 
fingers  take  out  these  wrong  stitches  and  show 
them  how  to  put  in  the  right  ones." 

To  some  these  incidents  may  seem  childish, 

yet   underlying  them  is  one  of   the   world's 

greatest  principles  of  development,  viz:  culti- 

I  vate  right   tendencies  in    humanity    and    the 

wrong  ones  must  die  out.     Build  up  the  posi- 

2 


18  The  hisiinct  of  ActivUy,  or 

Uve  side  of  your  child's  nature  and  the  nega- 
tive side  will  not  need  to  be  unbuilt. 

Let  me  illustrate  more  fully  this  important 
thought.  At  the  age  of  two  or  three  years, 
according  to  the  immaturity  or  maturity  of 
the  child,  the  instinct  of  investigation  begins 

'to  show  itself,  developing  in  various  ways  an 
appalling  power  of  destruction;  such  as  tear- 

|ing  to  pieces  his  doll,  smashing  his  toy-bank, 

1  cutting  holes  in  his  apron,  and  many  other  in- 
dications of  seeming  depravity.  It  is  a  criti- 
cal period.  Without  this  important  instinct, 
man  would  have  made  but  little  progress  in 

',  civilization ;  it  is  the  basis  of  scientific  and 
mathematical  research,  of  study  in  all  fields. 
This  legitimate  and  natural  investigative  ac- 
tivity needs  only  to  be  led  from  the  negative 
path  of  destruction,  into  the  positive  one  of 
construction.  Instead  of  vainly  attempting  to 
suppress  the  new-born  power  of  the  young 
pioneer,  or  searcher  after  truth,  guide  it 
aright.  Give  him  playthings  which  can  be 
taken  to  pieces  and  put  together  again  without 
injury  to  the  material;  dolls  which  can  be 
dressed  and  undressed;  horses  which  can  be 
harnessed  and  unharnessed;  carts  to  which 
horses  may  be  fastened  at  will,  or  any  like 
toys.      Blocks  which  can  be  built  into  various 


The  Training  of  the  Muscles.  19 

Jiew  forms  are  admirable  playthings  for  child- 
ren ;  the  more  of  their  own  ideas  they  can  put 
into  the  re-arrangement,  the  better.  It  is  the 
divine  right  of  each  human  being  to  re-con- 
struct in  his  own  way,  when  that  loay  does  not 
interfere  with  the  care  of  property,  or  the  rights 
of  others.  The  glorious  instinct  of  creativity 
— one  of  the  best  evidences  that  man  is  made 
in  the  image  of  God — also  is  cultivated. 

Froebel's  system  of  child-culture  is  based 
upon  laws  that  are  supported  by  the  three-fold 
testimony  of  nature,  history,  and  revelation. 
We  see  these  positive  and  negative  possibili- 
ties of  which  I  have  just  been  speaking,  in  all 
creation.  In  the  physical  world  they  appeal 
to  our  senses  for  recognition.  Look  at  any 
wayside  field  with  its  luxuriant  crop  of  weeds; 
one  may  plow  and  harrow,  may  prepare  the 
soil  with  diligence,  but  unless  the  right  kind 
of  seeds  are  planted,  the  weeds  will  again  have 
full  possession.  I  was  told  by  a  leading  phy- 
sician in  the  Engadine  Valley  in  Switzerland, 
who  had  made  a  life-time  study  of  diseases  of 
the  lungs,  that  if  a  person  inheriting  consump- 
tive tendencies  were  placed  in  the  right  cli- 
mate, his  constitution  could  so  be  built  up 
that  the  dread  tendency  would  die  out,  or  re- 
main dormant  and  not  develop,  even  though 


20  The  Instinct  of  Activity,  or 

the  inheritance  had  been  continuous  through 
many  generations.  This  statement  was  con- 
firmed by  a  prominent  London  physician,  and 
I  believe  is  now  the  accepted  theory. 

The  same  principle  is  shown  in  the  world  of 
history,  that  our  reason  may  assent  to  it.  As 
we  thoughtfully  turn  its  pages,  what  is  the 
record  we  find?  Is  it  not  as  soon  as  a 
nation  has  arrived  at  a  period  when  pioneer 
work  ceases,  when  conquest  over  siirrounding 
nature,  or  adjacent  nations,  is  no  longer  a 
necessity,  when  wealth  has  brought  leisure, 
that  then,  and  not  until  then,  self-indulg- 
ing vice  and  destroying  corruption  creep  in? 
The  positive  activity  of  the  nation  has  ceased, 
and  its  negative  activity  at  once  begins. 

With  equal  clearness  is  this  proclaimed  in 
the  world  of  revelation  that  we  may  know  it 
to  be  the  truth  of  God.  What  lesson  is 
taught  in  the  Scripture  parable  of  the  man 
who  drove  out  the  devil,  then  swept  and  gar- 
nished his  house  and  left  it  empiy,  when  seven 
other  demons  came  and  dwelt  therein? 

This  thought  was  well  understood  by  the 
mother  whose  boy  of  fourteen  was  coming 
home  alone  for  a  summer  vacation,  a  journey 
of  a  day  and  a  half.  Knowing  that  he  had 
once  before  fallen  into  the  habit  of  reading 


The  Training  of  the  Muscles.  21 

bad   books,    and   fearing   that    his  will-power 
was  not  yet  strong  enough  to  resist  the  temp- 
tation to  read  the  trash  sold  upon  the  train, 
she  bought  new  copies  of  the  "  St.  Nicholas" 
and   "  Youths'    Companion  "  and  sent  them  to 
him  with   the   loving  message  that  he  would 
probably  wish  something  to  read  on  the  way. 
When  he  reached  home  he  began   at  once  to 
tell  her  of  an  article  in  the    "St.  Nicholas" 
which    had    attracted    him,    and  of    a    "  boss 
story "  he   had  found  in  the  "  Youth's  Com- 
panion."    No  thought  had  entered  his  mind 
\  of  buying  other  reading  matter,  nor  had  there 
been  any  chafing   sense  of  prohibition.     The 
,   success  of  our  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tions is  to  be  attributed  to  this  same  positive 
j  upbuilding    principle.      When   they    wish    to 
!  close  a  saloon,  they  start   a  coffee-house  near 
'  by;  to  draw  idle  and  listless  young  men  from 
;  the  attractions  of  gambling  hells,   they  open 
I  lecture  halls  and  free  reading   rooms;  the  ex- 
hilaration of  healthful  exercise  in  the  gymna- 
sium counteracts  the  excitement   of   the    low 
dance  hall.     They  say  to  the  young  men  of 
our  citier-,  not  simply,   "  Don't  go  there,"  but, 
"Do  come  here."     To  all  thinking  observers, 
such  facts  as  these  must  bring  more  or  less 
convictiow    X\\9.f    it   is   by   supplying  positive 


22  The  Instinct  of  Activity,  or 

right  activities  for  our  children  that  we  sup- 
press the  wrong  ones. 

More  than  this,  a  negative  method  trains  a 
child  inevitably  into  a  critical,  pessimistic 
character  very  depressing  to  us  all.  For  in- 
stance: a  mother  came  to  me  in  utter  discour- 
agement, saying:  "What  shall  I  do  with  my 
five-year-old  boy?  He  is  simply  the  personi- 
fication of  the  word  wonH."  After  the  les- 
son was  over,  I  walked  home  with  her.  A 
beautiful  child,  with  golden  curls  and  great 
dancing  black  eyes,  came  running  out  to  meet 
us  and  with  all  the  impulsive  joy  of  childhood, 
threw  his  arms  around  her.  What  were  her  first 
words  ?  "  Don't  do  that,  James,  you  will  muss 
mamma's  dress."  I  had  already  suspected 
where  the  trouble  lay;  now  I  knew  that  I  was 
right.  In  a  moment  it  was:  "  Don't  twist  so, 
my  son."  "  Don't  make  that  noise."  In  the 
four  or  five  minutes  we  stood  at  her  steps,  she 
had  said  don't  five  times.  Can  you  wonder 
that  when  she  said,  "  Run  in  the  house  now. 
Mamma  is  coming  in  a  minute."  he  replied: 
"  No,  I  don't  want  to."  Such  training  devel- 
opes  unduly  the  critical  faculty  and  criticism 
leads  to  separation  from  our  fellow-beings. 
Therefore,  care  must  be  taken,  not  only  that 
the  child  himself  be  not  over-criticised,  but 


The  Training  of  the  Muscles.  23 

also  that  other  people  shall  not  be  criticised 
in  his  presence;  he  is  injured  far  more  than 
they  are  helped.  Unless  some  principle  is  in- 
volved, let  the  people  about  him  pass  for  he- 
roes and  heroines. 

Again,  a  year  or  two  ago,  I  was  visiting  at 
a  friend's  house,  when  in  the  course  of  con- 
versation, she  said:  "I  do  not  know  what  is 
the  difficulty  in  my  sister's  family.  She  tries 
to  train  her  children  aright,  and  yet  they  are 
almost  unmanageable."  The  difficulty  was  re- 
vealed to  me  in  a  call  made  soon  after.  The 
mother  sat  with  her  two-year-old  babe  on  her 
lap.  She  told  me  that  the  child  could  say 
only  a  few  words ;  that  he  was  not  yet  able  to 
talk.  Two  of  her  children  were  playing  in  an- 
other part  of  the  room.  In  a  short  time  they 
became  rather  boisterous.  The  mother  did  not 
notice  it,  but  the  two-year-old  turned  around 
and  in  an  impatient  tone  called  out:  "Boys 
'  top'."  Here  was  the  trouble.  Babies,  like 
parrots,  learn  to  say  first  the  words  which  they 
most  frequently  hear.  Consequently  this  little 
one  must  have  repeatedly  heard  the  words, 
"Boys,  stop!"  which  was  merely  the  suppres- 
sion of  some  annoying  or  wrong  thing,  and  not  a 
substitution  of  a  right  one  in  its  place.  It  had 
not  been:    "Boys,   run   out  in  the  yard  and 


24  The  Instinct  of  Activity^  or 

gather  some  flowers  for  the  tea-table,"  or, 
"Boys,  go  up  stairs  and  finish  your  sawing," 
or  some  like  directing  of  their  energy,  but 
merely,  "Boys,  stop!"  So  they  had  undoubt- 
edly "  stopped "  one  prohibited  thing  and 
gone  to  another. 

We  find  the  same  elements  in  literature.  In 
my  opinion  such  teachers  as  George  Eliot  are 
not  healthful  factors  in  the  spiritual  growth 
of  young  lives.  Do  not  such  writers  em- 
phasize the  discordant  sido  of  life,  rather 
than  the  harmonious  one?  In  one  of  the  num- 
bers of  the  British  Review,  the  author  just 
spoken  of  has  given  to  the  world  the  true  stand- 
ard of  measurement  for  a  great  writer.  She 
says:  "  We  do  not  value  a  writer  in  proportion 
to  his  freedom  from  faults,  but  in  proportion 
to  his  positive  excellences,  to  the  variety  of 
thought  he  contributes  or  suggests,  to  the 
amount  of  gladdening  and  energizing  emotion 
he  excites.''^  This  is  in  accordance  with  Froe- 
bel's  doctrines,  but  her  literary  work  failed  to 
rise  to  the  height  of  her  insight.  If  we  take 
her  own  words  as  the  test,  what  must  be  the 
judgment  of  the  reader  who,  as  he  turn  the  last 
page  of  "  Middlemarch,"  realizes  that  every 
worthy  or  lovable  character  in  it  has  been 
so  warped  and  marred  by  circumstances,  that 


The  Training  of  the  Muscles.  25 

admiration  has  half  turned  into  loving  pity. 
"  Daniel  Deronda  "  and  her  other  books  leave 
us  in  the  same  depressed  state.  From  this 
standpoint,  must  we  not  admit  that  the  great 
English  woman  is  not  as  helpful  or  as  whole- 
some as  many  a  writer  who  has  far  less  brain 
power  and  artistic  skill  than  she,  but  who 
leaves  us  with  a  strong  feeling  that  right 
rules  in  God's  universe  ?  Emerson  has  said: 
"  Even  Schopenhauer  preaching  pessimism  is 
odious." 

If  the  power  of  optimism  is  so  great  in  lit- 
erature, it  is  even  greater  in  life.  The  posi- 
tive method  of  training  builds  up  the  cheering, 
optimistic  character  which  is  so  much  needed. 
Who  are  the  men  and  women  that  are  lifting 
the  world  upward  and  onward?  Are  they  not 
those  who  encourage  more  than  they  criiicise  ? 
who  do  more  than  they  undo?  The  strongest, 
most  beautiful  characters  are  those  who  see 
the  good  that  is  in  each  person,  who  think  the 
best  that  is  possible  of  everyone,  who  as  soon 
as  they  form  a  new  acquaintance  see  his  fine- 
est  characteristics.  The  Kindergarten  world 
gives  innumerable  illustrations  of  how  this 
type  of  character  may  be  developed. 

A  small  child  was  brought  to  me  who  was 
the  most  complete  embodiment  of  the  result  of 


26  The  Instinct  of  Activity,  or 

negative  training  with  which  I  have  ever  come 
in  contact.  It  was,  "  No,  I  don't  want  to 
play;"  "  No,  I  won't  sit  by  that  boy";  "No,  I 
don't  like  the  blocks."  It  was  one  continual 
"  No."  No  one  pleased  him;  nothing  satisfied 
him.  Though  not  yet  five  years  old,  he  was 
already  an  isolated  character,  unhappy  himself 
and  constantly  making  others  uncomfortable. 
I  saw  that  the  child  needed  more  than  any- 
thing else  positive  encouragement,  to  be  led 
into  a  spirit  of  participation  with  others.  The 
third  day  after  his  arrival  another  child 
chanced  to  bring  a  small  pewter  soldier  to  the 
Kindergarten.  As  is  usual  with  each  little 
treasure  brought  from  home,  it  was  examined 
and  admired  and  at  play-time  it  was  allowed  to 
choose  a  game.  This  last  privilege  brought 
to  the  new  boy's  face  a  look  of  contempt,  which 
sharply  contrasted  with  the  happy,  sympathe- 
tic faces  of  the  other  children.  Soon  after  we 
had  taken  our  places  at  the  work-tables  with 
the  toy-soldier  standing  erect  in  front  of  little 
Paul,  his  proud  owner,  I  heard  a  whizzing 
sound  and  Paul's  voice  crying  out:  "  Joseph 
has  knocked  my  soldier  ofip  the  table  and  he 
did  it  on  purpose,  too!"  I  turned  to  the  scene 
of  disaster;  the  soldier  lay  on  the  other  side  of 
the  room,  and  Joseph,  the    iconoclastic    inva- 


The  Training  of  the  Muscles.  27 

der  into  our  realm  of  peace,  with  defiance  in 
his  face,  sat  looking  at  me.  The  first  impulse 
was  to  say:  "  Why  did  you  do  that?  It  was 
naughty;  go  and  pick  up  the  soldier."  That, 
however,  would  have  been  another  negation 
added  to  the  number  which  had  already  been 
daily  heaped  upon  him,  so,  instead,  I  said, 
*'  Oh  well,  Paul,  never  mind.  Joseph  does  not 
know  that  we  try  to  make  each  other  happy  in 
kindergarten." 

"  Come  here,  Joseph,  I  want  you  to  be  my 
messenger  boy."  The  role  of  messenger  boy, 
or  helper  to  distribute  the  work,  is  always  a 
much-coveted  office;  partly,  from  an  inborn 
delight  in  children  to  assist  in  the  work  of 
older  people ;  partly,  fi'om  the  distinction  which 
arises  in  the  imaginary  wearing  of  the  brass 
buttons  and  gilt  band.  As  if  expecting  some 
hidden  censure  Joseph  came  a  little  reluctant- 
ly to  where  I  was  sitting.  In  a  few  minutes 
he  was  busy  running  back  and  forth  giving  to 
each  child  the  envelope  containing  the  work 
of  the  next  half  hour.  As  soon  as  the  joy  of 
service  had  melted  him  into  a  mood  of  com- 
radeship- I  whispered:  "  Run  over  now  and  get 
Paul's  soldier."  Instantly  he  ran  across  the 
room,  picked  up  the  toy  and  placing  it  on  the 
table  before  its  rightful  owner,  quietly  slipped 


28  TJie  Instinct  of  ActivUy,  or 

into  his  own  place  and  began  bis  work.  His 
wbole  nature  for  tbe  time  being  was  cbanged 
into  good-bumored  fellowsbip  witb  all  man- 
kind. 

Similar  opportunities  for  like  transforma- 
tions may  be  found  in  tbe  home  life.  A  friend 
came  to  me  and  said:  "What  shall  I  do  with 
my  Willie?  He  dallies  so  about  everything 
that  he  has  to  do.  If  I  send  him  upstairs 
after  my  thimble  or  thread,  it  may  be  a  half 
hour  or  even  an  hour  before  he  returns.  I 
have  scolded  him  and  scolded  him,  but  it 
seems  to  do  no  good." 

"  By  scolding,"  I  replied,  "  you  have  em- 
phasized the  fault  you  wished  to  cure  and 
have  separated  yourself  from  your  boy.  Now, 
try  to  emphasize  the  opposite  virtue,  prompt- 
ness, by  praising  him  for  it  when  you  have  the 
opportunity." 

"  Oh,  there's  no  use  in  talking  of  that,"  she 
answered,  "  he  is  never  prompt." 

"  Then,"  said  I,  "  if  he  is  never  so  volun- 
tarily, make  an  occasion.  Ask  him  to  go  to  the 
kitchen,  or  some  other  part  of  the  house  on  an 
errand  for  you ;  tell  him  that  you  will  count 
while  he  is  gone.  When  he  gets  back,  praise 
him  for  having  returned  more  quickly  than 
usual.     At  dinner  tell  his  father  as  if  it  were 


The  Trai7iing  of  the  Muscles.  29 

a  fine  bit  of  news.  This  will  make  it  a  meri- 
torious achievement  in  your  son's  eyes." 

The  next  week  she  came  to  me  with  her 
face  fairly  radiant  and  said:  "I  have  been 
countinof  and  Willie  has  been  trotting  ever 
since  last  week,"  I  lausrhed  and  told  her  that 
her  mother-wit  would  soon  have  to  hunt  up 
some  new  device. 

In  Harriet  Martineau's  "Household  Educa- 
tion "  is  a  chapter  on  "  Eeverence."  She 
shows  how  a  child,  lacking  this  virtue,  should 
not  be  constantly  criticised  for  his  disrespect 
or  irreverence,  but  instead  needs  to  have  his 
eyes  opened  to  the  wonders  of  creation,  that 
the  majesty  and  power  of  God  displayed  in 
His  works  may  fill  his  heart  with  awe  and 
hush  it  into  the  needed  reverence.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  child  who  is  fearful  and  timid, 
over-reverent,  really  superstitious,  ought  not  to 
be  laughed  at  and  ridiculed,  but  to  have  the 
power  which  is  within  himself  developed,  until 
courage  and  self-reliance  restore  the  lacking 
balance  to  his  character.  This  method  of  treat- 
ment bears  at  once  practical  results. 

Many  a  mother  says  earnestly  to  herself: 
"What  shall  I  do  with  my  half-grown  boy,  his 
tone  and  manner  are  so  lacking  in  respect  ? 
Or,  the  troublesome    girl   who    almost   defies 


30  TJie  Instinct  of  Activity,  or 

authority."  Reproof  but  calls  forth  a  pert  re- 
ply, perhaps  long  argument  which  establishes 
something  of  equality  between  parent  and 
child.  The  real  question  is  not  how  to  sup- 
press this  lack  of  respect  for  authority,  but 
how  to  develop  the  opposite  virtue.  One  of 
the  favorite  sayings  of  Dr.  William  T.  Harris, 
the  well-known  educator,  is  this:  that  every 
man  has  two  selves,  the  great  self  of  humanity 
and  the  institutional  world,  and  the  little  self 
of  individuality.  Such  a  child  should  learn 
to  compare  his  great  self  with  his  individual 
self,  then  egotism  and  self-assertion  will  cease. 
What  has  he  done,  compared  with  the  achieve- 
ments of  mankind?  What  are  his  rights, 
when  the  rights  of  the  State  at  large  are  ex- 
amined? All  true  patriotism,  which  demands 
the  glad  laying  down  of  life  for  country,  arises 
from  the  realization  of  this  larger  self. 

With  this  principle  in  mind,  let  the  mother 
study  the  line  of  thought  which  most  attracts 
her  child,  that  he  may  perceive  that  she  has  a 
deeper,  stronger  grasp  of  the  subject  than  he 
can  at  present  hope  to  have.  As  a  rule,  child- 
ren worship  skill  of  brain  or  hand.  To  illus- 
trate: a  mother  completely  cured  her  eight- 
year-old  daughter  of  a  spirit  of  contradiction 
by  reading  ahead  of  the  child  some  books  on 


The  Training  of  the  Muscles.  31 

Natural  History,  and  telling  the  contents  to 
her  in  their  daily  walks.  The  girl  soon 
learned  to  look  up  to  the  mother  as  a  marvel 
of  wisdom  and  authority  on  all  Natural  His- 
tory subjects,  and  the  feeling  of  respect  in 
this  realm  was  easily  transferred  to  others. 
Over  and  over  again  have  I  seen  similar  chan- 
ges brought  about  in  a  child's  attitude  towards 
older  people,  by  like  training. 

Mothers,  so  cultivate  the  rational  element  in 
yourselves,  that  you  can  see  that  every  fault  in 
your  child  is  simply  the  lack  of  some  virtue. 
In  the  inner  chamber  of  your  own  souls  study 
your  children;  confess  their  faults  to  your- 
selves, not  to  your  neighbors,  and  ask  what  is 
lacking  that  these  defects  exist.  Like  Nehe- 
miah  of  old,  build  up  the  wall  where  it  is  the 
weakest ;  if  your  child  is  selfish,  it  is  unselfish- 
ness he  needs  j  if  he  is  untruthful,  it  is  accuracy 
which  is  lacking;  perhaps  he  is  tyrannical 
to  the  younger  brother  or  sister;  it  is  the  ele- 
ment of  nurture  or  tenderness  which  should  be 
developed. 

There  is  one  caution  which  must  be  given 
in  regard  to  the  matter  of  approval.  One 
should  be  sure  the  effort  is  a  genuine  one,  else 
commendation  wili  foster  a  species  of  hypocri- 
sy which  is  worse  than  the  fault  sought  to  be 
eradicated. 


32  The  Instinct  of  Activity. 

Dante  in  his  Divine  Comedy  places  heathen 
philosophers  and  poets  in  Limbo,  a  place 
neither  heaven  nor  hell,  but  he  gives  them 
the  privilege  of  appreciating  the  merits  of  the 
lost  souls  as  they  pass  along.  This  is  enough 
to  make  of  Limbo,  or  any  other  spot,  a  heaven. 
You  have  it  in  your  power  to  place  this  heaven 
within  your  child,  and  nothing  on  earth  can 
entirely  quench  the  happiness  it  will  create. 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE  INSTINCT  OP  INVESTIGATION,  OR  THE  TRAIN- 
ING OF  THE  SENSES. 

There  is  perhaps  no  instinct  of  the  child 
more  important  and  less  guarded  than  the  exer- 
cise of  his  senses.  The  inner  being  awakes  by 
means  of  the  impressions  conveyed  to  the  young 
brain  through  those  avenues.  The  baby  be- 
gins this  life-work  as  soon  as  his  eyes  can  fix 
themselves  on  any  point  in  space,  as  soon  as 
his  tiny  hand  can  grasp  any  object  of  the  ma- 
terial world.  Altliough,  in  reality,  the  three- 
fold nature  of  the  child  cannot  be  separated,  for 
the  sake  of  closer  study  we  may  consider  the 
subject  from  three  standpoints:  first,  the  phys- 
ical value;  second,  the  intellectual  value;  third, 
the  moral  value  of  the  right  training  of  the 
senses. 

The  one  thing  which  prevents  most  of  us 
from  being  that  which  we  might  have  been, 
is  the  dull,  stupid  way  in  which  we  have  used 
our  senses.  Thousands  of  us  having  eyes  to 
see,  see  not;  having  ears  to  hear,  hear  not; 
in  the  literal,  as  well  as  the  spiritual,  sense 
3  33 


34         The  Instinct  of  Investigation,  or 

of  the  words.  Question  any  two  persons  who 
have  listened  to  the  same  sermon  or  lecture, 
and  you  will  discover  how  much  one  has  heard 
which  has  escaped  the  other.  Talk  with  any 
intelligent  acquaintance  about  a  picture  gallery 
or  a  foreign  city,  which  you  both  have  vis- 
ited, and  you  will  be  covered  with  chagrin 
by  the  realization  of  how  much  you  did  not 
see. 

"The  artist,"  says  George  Eliot,  "becomes 
the  true  teacher  by  giving  us  his  higher  sensi- 
bilities as  a  medium,  a  delicate  acoustic  or 
optical  instrument,  bringing  home  to  our 
coarser  senses  that  which  would  otherwise  be 
unperceived  by  us."  The  joy  which  comes 
from  a  sunset  cloud,  the  happiness  which  the 
song  of  a  bird  may  produce,  the  poetry  and 
glory  of  all  creation  lie  unseen  about  us  be- 
cause these  windows  of  the  soul  have  not  been 
opened. 

Half  the  wealth  of  the  world  is  lost  to 
most  of  us  from  lack  of  power  to  perceive. 
The  difference  between  so-called  clever  children 
and  intelligent  ones  is  largely  a  difference  in 
their  sense-perception.  For  the  purpose  of 
training  aright  these  much-neglected  instru- 
ments, the  Kindergarten  has  games  in  which 
first  one  sense  and  then  another  is  exercised 


The  Training  of  the  Senses.  35 

and  strengthened.  For  example,  the  child  is 
allowed  to  shut  his  eyes  and  by  touch  to  tell 
the  name  of  an  object,  or  from  his  hearing 
to  tell  the  object  struck  and  what  struck  it,  or 
by  taste  or  smell  to  describe  and  name  the 
thing  placed  before  him.  But  the  teacher  or 
mother  who  realizes  the  higher  need  does  not 
let  the  child  rest  in  the  mere  sense  impression. 
He  is  given  two  objects  that  he  may  contrast 
them,  or  he  hears  two  differing  sounds,  smells 
two  odors,  tastes  two  flavors,  and  is  led  to  con- 
trast the  one  with  the  other,  that  the  higher 
faculty  of  comparison  may  also  ba  developed 
by  the  play.  Thus  the  little  ears  learn  to  hear 
soft  notes  that  our  duller  ones  can  not  catch; 
thus  the  young  eyes  learn  to  recognize  finer 
shades  of  color  than  our  less  trained  ones  can 
perceive. 

The  habit  of  contrasting  or  comparing  in 
material  things  leads  to  a  fineness  of  disiinc- 
iion  in  higher  matters.  John  Buskin  and  like 
thinkers  claim  that  a  perception  of  and  love 
for  the  beautiful  in  nature  leads  directly  into 
a  discernment  of  the  beautiful  in  the  moral 
world. 

The  intellectual  value  of  a  clear  and  definite 
training  of  the  senses  is  usually  perceived  by 
any  thinking  mind.     The  child  who  has  early 


36         The  Instinct  of  Investigation^  or 

learned  to  notice  the  difference  between  sweet 
and  sour,  between  smooth  and  rough,  between 
straight  and  crooked  in  material  things,  is  the 
sooner  able  to  transfer  the  meaning  to  intellect- 
ual qualities.  He  more  readily  understands  the 
meaning  of  "  sweet  disposition,"  "sour  temper," 
"  smooth  manner,"  "  rough  speech,"  "  straight 
conduct,"  "  crooked  dealings,"  and  the  like. 
Children  begin  to  make  this  higher  use  of  their 
vocabulary  as  soon  as  they  thoroughly  com- 
prehend the  physical  meaning  of  the  word.  Oc- 
casionally they  put  the  object  into  the  new  sen- 
tence, often  making  laughable  mistakes,  and 
reminding  the  listener  of  the  days  of  the  child- 
hood of  the  race,  when  a  brave  chieftain  was 
called  a  lion  man,  the  shrewd  leader  was  named 
the  fox.  One  morning  we  had  hyacinth  bulbs ; 
we  examined  them  and  compared  them  with 
some  blossoming  hyacinths  which  stood  upon 
the  window-sill.  A  day  or  two  after,  an  onion 
was  brought  in  by  a  delighted  child,  as  another 
fat  round  j3ower-baby  for  us  to  plant.  I  had 
some  difficulty  in  making  them  see  the  differ- 
ence, and  finally  cut  the  onion  open,  and,  blind- 
ing their  eyes,  let  them  smell  first  the  flower 
and  then  the  onion  bulb.  An  hour  or  two  later 
one  of  the  little  girls  spoke  in  an  irritated,  pet- 
ulant tone  to  her  neighbor  who  had  accident- 


The  Training  of  the  Senses.  37 

ally  knocked  over  her  blocks.  "  Look  out,"  said 
a  little  one  the  other  side  of  her,  "  or  you'll 
have  an  onion  voice  soon!  "  The  sense  of  this 
child  had  not  been  sufficiently  trained  to  enable 
her  to  ahstract  or  detach  the  property  "  dis- 
agreeable "  from  the  object,  so  the  entire  onion 
had  to  be  dragged  into  her  warning.  The 
sooner  the  child  is  freed  from  the  necessity  of 
using  objects  to  express  his  thought,  the  sooner 
he  becomes  able  to  communicate  his  inner 
thought  to  the  outer  world.  When  he  learns 
the  finer  distinctions  of  the  physical  properties 
of  matter,  his  vocabulary  becomes  enriched  ten- 
fold, and  he  obtains  that  much -needed,  much- 
coveted  gift,  "  the  power  of  utterance,"  for  the 
lack  of  which  most  of  us  go  like  dumb  crea- 
tures about  the  world,  so  far  as  the  giving  forth 
of  our  higher  selves  is  concerned. 

The  moral  value  of  the  complete  control  of 
the  senses  has  not  been  so  universally  recog- 
nized. Bain  and  other  authorities  on  mental 
science  divide  the  senses  into  two  groups; 
first,  the  lower:  taste,  smell,  and  touch,  as  re- 
lated to  organic  life,  i.  e.  hunger,  thirst,  reple- 
tion, sufPocation,  warmth,  and  other  sensations 
whose  office  relates  to  the  upbuilding  of  the 
body;  and  second,  the  higher:  touch  proper, 
hearing  and  sight,   or  those  which  relate    to 


38         The  Instinct  of  Investigation,  or 

the  outside  world.  The  former  are  called  the 
lower  senses  from  the  fact  that  they  aid  less 
directly  the  mental  growth,  by  producing  less 
vivid  pictures  in  the  mind.  For  instance,  the 
remembrance  called  forth  by  tlie  words  "sweet 
apple,"  or  "  odor  of  violets,"  is  not  so  distinct 
as  that  given  by  the  words,  "  large  apple," 
"blue  violets."  To  a  limited  extent  the  world 
at  large  has  acknowledged  this  distinction,  in- 
tellectually, between  the  lower  and  the  higher 
senses,  has  directed  the  training  of  the  eye  and 
the  ear,  and  is  now  struggling  to  place  in  th^ 
school  curriculum  a  systematized  teaching  of 
the  sense  of  touch.  But  the  overwhelming 
moral  need  of  mankind  lies  in  the  world  of  the 
lower  senses.  The  non-training  of  these  is  ex- 
ceedingly dangerous  because  they  have  direct 
eflPect  upon  the  will.  Any  child  turns  more 
quickly  from  a  bad  odor  than  from  a  bad  25?'c- 
t7ire,  comes  with  more  alacrity  to  get  a  sweet- 
meat than  to  hear  some  pleasing  sound.  Is  it 
not  the  same  with  most  adults?  Are  not  the 
invitations  to  dinner  more  frequently  accepted 
than  those  to  hear  fine  music  ?  Are  not  our 
sympathies  aroused  more  readily  by  a  tale  of 
physical  suffering  than  by  one  of  demoralizing 
surroundings?  Notwithstanding  these  facts, 
the  two  lower  senses  of  taste  and  smell  have 


The  T7'aining  of  the  Senses.  39 

been  left  almost  entirely  to  the  haphazard  edu- 
cation of  circumstances.  Sad  indeed  have  been 
the  results. 

As  we  look  abroad  over  the  world,  what  do 
we  perceive  to  be  the  chief  cause  of  the  wrecks 
and  ruins,  of  the  wretchedness  and  misery  which 
lie  about  us?  Why  have  we  on  every  hand 
such  dwarfed  and  stunted  characters?  For 
what  reason  do  crimes,  too  polluting  to  be  men- 
tioned save  where  remedy  is  sought,  poison  our 
moral  atmosphere  until  our  great  cities  become 
fatal  to  half  the  young  men  and  women  who 
come  to  them  ?  Why  do  our  clergy  and  other 
reformers  have  to  labor  so  hard  to  attract  the 
hearts  of  men  to  what  is  in  itself  glorious  and 
beautiful  ? 

Is  it  not,  in  a  majority  of  cases,  because  man- 
kind has  not  learned  to  subordinate  the  gratifi- 
cation of  physical  appetite  to  rational  ends?  It 
is  to  be  seen  in  every  phase  of  society ;  from  the 
rich  and  favored  dame,  so  enervated  by  soft 
chairs  and  tempered  lights  and  luxurious  sur- 
roundings that  she  is  blind  to  the  sight  of  mis- 
ery and  deaf  to  the  cry  of  despair,  down 
through  the  grades  where  we  find  the  luxuries 
of  the  table  the  only  luxuries  indulged  in,  and 
"  plain  living  and  high  thinking  "  the  excep- 
tion, still  farther  down  from  these  respectable 


40         The  Instinct  of  Investigation,  or 

phases  of  self-indulgence  to  the  poor  drunkard 
who  sacrifices  all  comforts  of  the  home,  all 
peace  of  the  family  life,  for  the  gratification  of 
his  insatiable  thirst,  down  to  the  pitiable  wretch 
who  sells  her  soul  that  her  body  may  live. 

Do  not  their  lives,  all  of  tliem,  contradict 
that  significant  question  of  the  Son  of  God: 
"Is  not  the  body  more  than  the  raiment?"  "  Is 
not  the  life  more  than  the  meat?" 

Let  us  turn  from  these  distressing  pictures 
to  seek  such  remedy  as  the  scientific  investiga- 
tion of  the  senses  may  ofPer. 

The  sense  of  taste  has  two  offices,  relish  and 
power  to  discriminate;  the  first,  for  the  pro- 
ducing of  certain  pleasant  sensations  in  the 
mouth  or  stomach,  and  the  second,  for  the  judg- 
ing between  wholesomeness  and  unwholesome- 
ness  of  food,  the  latter  being  taste  proper. 

The  former  is  the  gratification  of  the  sense 
for  the  sake  of  the  sensation,  and  leads  through 
over-indulgence  directly  into  gluttony,  which, 
in  its  turn,  leads  into  sensuality.  In  history 
not  until  a  nation  begins  to  send  far  and  wide 
for  delicacies  and  condiments  for  its  markets 
and  tables  does  it  become  voluptuous  and  sen- 
sual. When  we  speak  of  "  the  degenerate  days 
of  Rome  "  do  not  pictures  of  their  over-loaded 
tables  rise  before  the  mind's  eye? 


The  Training  of  the  Senses.  41 

We  need  not  have  turned  to  other  times  for 
illustrations  of  this  truth.  "Who  are  the  "  high 
livers"  of  to-day?  Are  they  not  too  often  sen- 
sualists as  well? 

The  latter  use  of  this  organ  of  sensation  leads 
to  discrimination,  which  discrimination  pro- 
duces wholesome  restraint  upon  undue  eating; 
this  restraint  engenders  self-control,  making  the 
moral  will-power  over  the  bodily  appetite — 
man's  greatest  safeguard  in  the  hour  of  temp- 
tation. In  the  physical  world,  we  know  that 
rank  vegetation  needs  to  be  pruned  and  checked 
if  it  is  to  give  to  man  its  best  fruits;  thus  na- 
ture teaches  us  her  lesson. 

In  the  intellectual  world,  the  prophets  and 
seers  have  always  seen  the  close  connection 
between  the  right  feeding  of  the  body  and  the 
control  of  the  sensual  appetites.  Long  ago 
Plato  in  "  The  Republic  "  would  have  all  books 
banished  which  contained  descriptions  of 
the  mere  pleasures  of  food,  drink,  and  love, 
classing  the  three  under  one  head.  What  an 
enormous  amount  of  so-called  literature  would 
have  to  be  swept  out  of  the  libraries  of  to-day, 
were  that  mandate  sent  forth!  Dante,  with 
that  marvelous  vision  of  his  which  seemed  to 
see  through  all  disguises  and  all  forms  of  sin 
back  to  the  causes  of  the  same,  places  gluttony 


42         The  Instinct  of  Investigation,  or 

and  sensuality  in  the  same  circle  of  the  In- 
ferno.    At   least   two   great  branches  of   the  ,  > 
Christian  church,  the  Roman  Catholic  and  the  ' 
Protestant  Episcopal,  have  realized  the  moral 
value  of  placing  the  appetites  under  the  con-  ^  r 
trol  of   the  will,  in  their  establishment  and  Nj 
maintenance  of  the  season  of  Lent.     Let  him  I  ^ 
who  would  scoff  at  the  observance  of  this  sea-| 
son  of  restraint,  try  for  six  weeks  to  go  with- 
out his  favorite  article  of  food,  and  he  will  real- 
ize for  himself  the  amount  of  will-power  it  re- 
quires.   To  me,  the  story  of  Daniel  derives  its 
significance,  not  so  much   from    the    fearless 
courage  with  which  that  "  Great  Heart"  dared 
death  in  the  lion's  den,  as  from  the  fact  that 
as  a  child  he    had  moral   control   enough  to 
turn  from  the  king's  sumptuous  table  and  eat 
simple   pulse    and   drink    pure    water.      Such 
self-control  must  produce  the  courage  and  the 
manhood  which  will  die  for  a  principle.     So,  in 
telling   this    story,   ever  loved  by   childhood, 
we  always  emphasize  the  earlier  struggle  and 
victory  rather  than  the  later. 

The  perfect  character  is  the  character  with 
the  perfectly  controlled  will;  therefore,  the 
heroes  of  the  Kindergarten  stories  are  mightier 
than  they  who  have  taken  a  city,  for  they  have 
conquered  themselves.     The  greatest  battles  of 


The  Training  of  the  Se7ises.  43 

the  world  are  the  battles  which  are  fought 
within  the  human  breast  ;  and,  alas,  the  great- 
est defeats  are  here  also  ! 

A  writer  in  a  recent  article  in  The  Christian 
Union  showed  that  a  child's  inheritance  of  cer- 
tain likes  and  dislikes  in  the  matter  of  food  does 
not  in  the  least  forbid  the  training  of  his  taste 
towards  that  which  is  healthful  and  upbuild- 
ing, it  merely  adds  an  element  to  be  considered 
in  the  training. 

Another  gifted  writer  of  our  own  nation, 
Horace  Bushnell,  in  his  book  called  "  Christian 
Nurture  "  utters  these  impressive  words:  "  The 
child  is  taken  when  his  training  begins,  in  a 
state  of  naturalness  as  respects  all  the  bodily 
tastes  and  tempers,  and  the  endeavor  should 
be  to  keep  him  in  that  key,  to  let  no  stimula- 
tion of  excess  or  delicacy  disturb  the  simplicity 
of  nature,  and  no  sensual  pleasure  in  the  name 
of  food  become  a  want  or  expectation  of  his 
appetite.  Any  artificial  appetite  begun  is  the 
beginning  of  distemper,  disease  and  a  general 
disturbance  of  natural  proportion.  Intemper- 
ance !  The  woes  of  intemperate  drink  !  how 
dismal  the  story,  when  it  is  told  ;  how  dreadful 
the  picture  when  we  look  upon  it.  From  what 
do  the  father  and  mother  recoil  with  a  greater 
and  more  total  horror  of  feeling,  than  the  pos- 


44         The  Instinct  of  Investigation,  or 

sibility  that  their  child  is  to  be  a  drunkard? 
Little  do  they  remember  that  he  can  be,  even 
before  he  has  so  much  as  tasted  the  cup  ;  and 
that  they  themselves  can  make  him  so,  virtual- 
ly without  meaning  it,  even  before  he  has  got- 
ten his  lanijuatje.  Nine-tenths  of  the  intem- 
perate  drinking  begins,  not  in  grief  and  desti- 
tution, as  we  often  hear,  but  in  vicious  feeding. 
Here  the  scale  and  order  of  simplicity  is  fii'st 
broken,  and  then  what  shall  a  distempered  or 
distem perate  life  run  to,  more  certainly  than 
what  is  intemperate?  False  feeding  engenders 
false  appetite,  and  when  the  soul  is  burning  all 
through  in  the  fires  of  false  appetite,  what  is 
that  but  a  universal  uneasiness?  And  what 
will  this  uneasiness  more  actually  do  than  par- 
take itself  to  the  pleasure  and  excitement  of 
drink?"  Much  more  that  is  suggestive  and 
helpful  to  the  mother  is  given  in  his  chapter 
entitled  "  Physical  Nurture  to  be  a  means  of 
Grace." 

Froebel,  from  whose  eagle  eye  nothing  which 
related  to  the  child  seemed  to  escape,  saw  this 
danger,  and  in  his  "Education  of  Man"  says: 
"  In  the  early  years  the  child's  food  is  a  matter 
of  very  great  importance;  not  only  may  the 
child  by  this  means  be  made  indolent  or  active, 
sluggish  or   mobile,  dull  or  bright,  inert  or 


Che  Training  of  the  Senses.  45 

'  vigorous,  but,  indeed,  for  his  entire  life.  Im- 
,  pressions,  inclinations,  appetites,  which  the 
child  may  have  derived  from  his  food,  the  turn 
it  may  have  given  to  his  senses  and  even  to  his 
life  as  a  whole,  can  only  with  difficulty  be  set 
aside,  even  when  the  age  of  self-dependence 
has  been  reached  ;  they  are  one  with  his  whole 
physical  life,  and  therefore  intimately  connected 
with  his  spiritual  life.  And  again,  parents  and 
nurses  should  ever  remember,  as  underlying 
every  precept  in  this  direction,  the  following 
general  principle:  that  simplicity  and  frugality 
in  food  and  in  other  physical  needs  during  the 
S  years  of  childhood  enhance  man's  power  of 
attaining  happiness  and  vigor — true  creative- 
ness  in  every  respect.  Who  has  not  noticed 
in  children,  overstimulated  by  spices  and  ex- 
cesses of  food,  appetites  of  a  very  low  order, 
from  which  they  can  never  again  be  freed — 
appetites  which,  even  when  thoy  seem  to  have 
been  suppressed,  only  slumber,  and  in  times 
of  opportunity  return  with  greater  power, 
threatening  to  rob  man  of  all  his  dignity 
and  to  force  him  away  from  his  duty." 

Then  comes  with  an  almost  audible  sigh 
these  words  .  "It  is  by  far  easier  than  we  think 
to  promote  and  establish  the  welfare  of  man- 
kind.    All  the  means  are  simple  and  at  hand. 


4ft  The  Instinct  of  Investigation,  or 

yet  we  see  them  not.  You  see  them  perhaps, 
but  do  not  notice  them.  In  their  simplicity, 
availability,  and  nearness,  they  seem  too  insig- 
nificant, and  we  despise  them.  We  seek  help 
fi'om  afar,  although  help  is  only  in  and  through 
ourselves.  Hence,  at  a  later  period  half  or  all 
our  accumulated  wealth  can  not  procure  for  our 
children  what  greater  insight  and  keener  vision 
discern  as  their  greatest  good.  This  they  must 
miss,  or  enjoy  but  partially  or  scantily.  It 
might  have  been  theirs  in  full  measure,  had 
we  expended  very  much  less  for  their  physical 
comfort."  Then  he  exclaims  in  ringing  tones, 
as  the  enormous  significance  of  the  subject 
grows  upon  him:  "  Would  that  to  each  young 
newly  married  couple  there  could  be  shown  in 
all  its  vividness,  only  one  of  the  sad  experien- 
ces and  observations  in  its  small  and  seemingly 
insignificant  beginnings,  and  in  its  incalculable 
consequences  that  tend  utterly  to  destroy  all 
the  good  of  after  education." 

Next  he  points  out  the  way  to  avoid  the  s?ti 
consequences  which  he  so  laments,  "And  here 
it  is  easy  to  avoid  the  wrong  and  to  find  the 
right.  Always  let  the  food  be  simply  for 
nourishment — never  more,  never  less.  Never 
should  the  food  be  taken  for  its  own  sake,  but 
for  the  sake  of  promoting  bodily  and  mental 


The  Training  of  the  Senses,  47 

activity.  Still  less  should  the  peculiarities  of 
food,  its  taste  or  delicacy,  ever  become  an  ob- 
ject in  themselves,  but  only  a  means  to  make  it 
good,  pure,  wholesome  nourishment;  else  in 
both  cases  the  food  destroys  health.  Let  the 
food  of  the  little  child  be  as  simple  as  the  cir- 
cumstances in  which  the  child  lives  can  afford, 
and  let  it  be  given  in  proportion  to  his  bodily 
and  mental  activity." 

There  is  no  one  among  us  who  cannot  recall 
pictures  of  young  mothers  putting  a  spoonful 
of  sweet  to  the  baby's  mouth,  and  persuading 
that  unwilling  little  one  to  take  the  unaccus- 
tomed food,  saying  with  coaxing  tone  such 
words  of  encouragement  as,  "  So  good,  so  good," 
in  this  way  teaching  the  child  to  dwell  upon 
and  value  the  relish  side  of  his  food. 

Not  long  ago  I  had  occasion  to  take  a  long 
ride  on  a  street  car.  My  attention  was  at- 
tracted to  a  placid  mother  with  her  year-old 
child  in  her  arms.  The  little  one  was  in 
quiet  wonder  looking  out  on  the  great,  new 
world  about  him,  with  its  myriads  of  moving 
objects.  Here  was  a  picture  of  sereno  con- 
tentment in  both  mother  and  child.  Soon  the 
mother  slipped  her  hand  into  her  pocket  and 
drew  forth  a  small  paper  bag,  out  of  which 
she  took  a  piece  of  candy  and  put  it  into  her 


48         The  Instinct  of  Investigation,  or 

mouth  ;  then,  fearing,  I  suppose,  that  this 
might  be  selfish,  she  took  out  another  piece 
and  put  it  into  the  infant's  mouth.  The 
child  resented  the  intrusion  upon  its  medita- 
tions by  ejecting  the  proffered  sweet.  The 
mother  was  not  to  be  defeated  in  her  gener- 
osity. She  put  it  back  into  the  child's  mouth 
and  held  it  there  until  the  little  one  began 
to  suck  it  of  his  own  account.  This  oper- 
ation was  repeated  a  number  of  times,  about 
every  third  piece  of  candy  being  given  to  the 
child.  Once  or  twice  the  small  recipient 
turned  its  head  away,  but  was  coaxed  back 
by  the  cooing  voice  of  the  mother  saying, 
"Take  it,  darling;  see,  mamma  likes  candy," 
illustrating  the  remark  by  eating  a  piece  and 
giving  every  sign  of  enjoyment  during  the 
operation.  The  child  was  soon  won  over,  and 
began  to  reach  out  his  hands  for  more.  Af- 
ter the  unwholesome  relish  had  been  sufficient- 
ly accumulated  in  the  delicate  little  stomach 
to  make  the  child  physically  uncomfortable, 
he  began  to  show  a  restlessness,  a  desire  to 
move  about  unnecessarily.  The  mother  grew 
impatient,  which  only  increased  the  child's  un- 
easiness ;  finally  she  shook  him,  saying,  *'  I  don't 
see  what  in  the  world  is  the  matter  with  you.  You 
are  a  bad  troublesome  little  thing !"    At  this, 


The  Training  of  the  Senses.  49 

the  unjustly  accused  little  victim  set  up  a  lusty 
yell,  and  the  mother  in  a  few  minutes  left  the 
car  in  great  confusion  and  with  a  very  red  face, 
wondering,  no  doubt,  from  which  of  his  fath- 
er's relatives  the  child  inherited  such  a  dis- 
agreeable disposition. 

"  But,"  exclaimed  one  mother  to  me,  "  do 
you  mean  to  say  that  you  would  not  give  any 
confectionery  to  a  child  ?  I  think  candy  is  the 
prerogative  of  all  children.  Why,  I  think  it 
is  a  crime  to  take  it  away  from  them !"  "  I 
think,"  was  my  reply,  "  that  a  healthy  body 
and  a  strong  moral  will-power  are  the  pre- 
rogatives of  each  child,  and  it  is  a  crime  to 
take  them  away  from  him."  "  But,"  she  added, 
in  an  annoyed  tone,  "  I  do  love  candy  so  my- 
self, and  I  can't  eat  it  before  my  child  and 
not  give  her  a  part  of  it  ! " 

I  do  not  mean  that  all  sweets  must  be 
banished  from  the  nursery  or  the  table, — the 
child  would  thus  be  deprived  of  a  lesson  in 
voluntary  self-control  ;  but  they  should  be 
given  as  relishes  only,  after  a  wholesome  meal, 
letting  the  child  understand  that  it  adds  little 
or  nothing  to  his  up-building,  and  must,  there- 
fore, be  taken  sparingly. 

In  "  The  Tasting  Song,"  in  that  wonderful 
book  of  his  for  mothers,  Froebel  suggests  thai 


50         The  Instinct  of  Investigation,  or 

the  child's  thoughts  may  be  playfully  led  to  the 
discrimiuation  of  different  kiuds  of  food  and 
the  value  of  the  same.  He  says,  "  Who  does 
not  know  and  rejoice  that  you,  dear  mother, 
can  carry  on  everything  as  a  game  with 
your  child,  and  can  dress  up  for  him  the 
most  important  things  of  life  in  charming 
play?" 

It  is  not  supposed  that  any  mother  will 
feel  herself  compelled  to  use  the  rather  crude 
rhyme  given  in  the  "Mother  Book,"  still  it 
contains  the  needed  hint  of  playfully  guiding 
the  child's  attention  to  the  after  effects  of  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  food.  Froebel  has  said:  "This 
is  the  way  in  which  you,  mother,  try  to  foster, 
develop  and  improve  each  sense,  playfully  and 
gaily,  but  especially  the  sense  of  taste.  What 
is  more  important  for  your  child  than  the  im- 
provement of  the  senses,  especially  the  improve- 
ment of  the  sense  of  taste,  in  its  transferred 
moral  meaning,  as  well."  Farther  on  in  the 
same  earnest  talk  with  the  mother  (see  page 
136  "Mother  Songs")  he  tells  her  that  by 
such  exercising  of  her  child's  senses  does  she 
teach  him  gradually  to  judge  of  the  inner  es- 
sence of  things  by  their  appearance ;  that  it  is 
not  necessary  for  any  one  to  actually  indulge 
m  wrong-doing,  claiming  that  moral  as  well  as 


The  Training  of  the  Senses.  51 

physical  things  show  their,  real  nature  to  the 
observing  eye.  Thus  if  the  child  is  trained  to 
know  the  wholesomeness  or  uuwholesomeness 
of  food  by  its  results  or  after  effects,  he  will 
the  more  readily  judge  of  the  nature  of  a  plea- 
sure, of  a  companion,  of  a  book,  of  a  line  of 
conduct,  by  its  after  effects;  and  it  is  not, 
therefore,  necessary  that  he  "  sow  his  wild 
oats,"  or  "  seeJhe,_3!srorld,"  in  the  pitiable  sense 
in  which  that  term  is  used,  in  order  that  he 
may  know  life.  His  rational  judgment  can 
teach  him  what,  oftentimes^  sad,  bitter,  deform- 
ing experiences  tell  him,  alas !  too  late  to  avoid. 
Most  of  you  are  familiar  with  the  old  Greek 
story  of  Perseus, — how,  when  commanded  by 
the  king  to  bring  the  head  of  the  slain  Medusa 
to  the  court,  the  wise  young  Perseus  took  with 
him  a  bright  and  shining  shield  in  which  he 
could  see  reflected  the  image  of  the  terrible 
Gorgon,  learn  what  manner  of  creature  she  was, 
know  her  exact  whereabouts,  and  study  how  best 
to  destroy  her,  without  himself  coming  in  per- 
sonal contact  with  her,  for  well  he  knew  fatal 
to  him  would  be  that  contact.  The  legend  tells 
us  that  he  thereby  returned  triumphant  to 
court,  having  destroyed  the  destroyer.  This 
to  me  is  one  of  the  most  significant  of  all  the 
old  Greek  myths. 


52         The  Instinct  of  Investigation,  or 

In  the  motto  of  this  "Tasting  Song"  Froebel 

says  to  the  mother: 

"  Ever  through  the  senses  Nature  woos  the  child, 
Thou  canst  help  him  comprehend  her  lessons  mild.'' 

In   other  words,  Nature,  God's  instrument, 

is  striving   to  educate  your  child   spiritually. 

You  are  another  of  His  instruments,  dull  or 

sharp,  according  to  the  care  you  are  giving  to 

this  physical  training. 

"  By  the  senses  is  the  inner  door  unsealed, 
Where  the  spirit  glows  in  light  revealed." 

Froebel's  convictions  on  this  subject  are  defi- 
nite. That  the  soul,  the  Divine  element  in  each 
child,  is,  as  it  were,  sealed  up  when  he  first 
comes  into  the  world,  and  is  gradually  awaken- 
ed and  strengthened  by  the  impressions  which 
come  to  him  through  the  senses  from  the  out- 
side world;  that  the  physical  and  spiritual 
growth  of  the  child  go  forward,  not  only  simul- 
taneously, but  the  one  by  means  of  the  other. 
He  especially  charges  the  mother  to  teach  her 
child  to  observe  and  avoid  things  which  are 
unripe.  "  Make  your  child  notice  not  only  the 
fixed  steps  of  development  from  the  unripe  to 
the  ripe,  but  above  all  have  him  realize  that  to 
use  what  is  unripe  is  contrary  to  Nature  in 
all  relations  and  conditions  of  life,  and  often 
works,  in  its  turn,  injuriously  on  life,  on  phy- 


The  Training  of  the  Senses.  53 

sical  but  no  less  on  intellectual  and  social 
life  ;"  and  as  a  closing  word  he  exclaims,  "  If 
you  do  this,  you  will  be  really,  as  a  mother, 
one  of  the  greatest  benefactors  of  the  human 
race." 

That  the  opinions  and  consequently  the  ac- 
tions of  children  are  easily  influenced  through 
play,  becomes  evident  to  any  one  who  has  ever 
played  much  with  them.  One  morning,  while 
giving  a  lesson  with  the  building  blocks,  we 
made  an  oblong  form,  which  I  asked  one  of  the 
children  to  name.  "It  is  a  table — a  break- 
fast table."  "  Let  us  play  they  are  all  break- 
fast tables,"  said  I;  "I  will  come  around  and 
visit  each  one  and  see  what  the  little  child- 
ren have  to  eat.  What  is  on  your  table, 
Helen  ?"  "  Oh  !  "  exclaimed  she,  with  eager 
delight,  "  my  children  have  ice-cream  and 
cake  and  soda-water  and — "  "  Oh,  dear!  oh, 
dear!"  cried  I,  holding  up  my  hands,  "  poor 
little  things!  just  think  of  their  having  such 
a  thoughtless  mamma,  who  didn't  know  how 
to  give  them  good,  wholesome  food  for  their 
breakfast!  How  can  they  ever  grow  big  and 
strong  on  such  stuff  as  that?  What  is  on 
your  table  Frank?"  "  My  children  have  bread 
and  butter,  oatmeal  and  cream,  and  baked 
potatoes,"    said    the  discreet     young    father. 


54         The  Instinct  of  Investigation,  or 

"Ah!"  said  I,  in  a  tone  of  intense  satisfaction, 
"  now  here  is  a  sensible  mamma,  who  knows 
how  to  take  care  of  her  children  ! "  "  Oh," 
broke  in  little  Helen,  "  my  children's  mamma 
came  into  the  room  and  when  she  saw  what 
they  were  eating  she  jerked  the  ice-cream  off 
the  table."  The  significant  gesture  which  ac- 
companied the  emphatic  tone  told  of  the  sud- 
den revolution  which  had  taken  place  in  the 
child's  mind  as  to  the  right  kinds  of  food  for 
carefully  reared  children. 

In  a  thousand  such  ways  can  children  be  in- 
fluenced to  form  judgments  concerning  lines  of 
conduct  which  will  help  them  to  decide  aright 
when  the  real  deed  is  to  be  enacted.  I  know 
of  the  Kindergarten-trained  five-year-old  son 
of  a  millionaire,  who  refused  spiced  pickles, 
when  they  were  passed  to  him  at  the  table. 
"  Why,  my  son,"  said  his  father,  "  do  you  not 
wish  some  pickles?  They  are  very  nice."  "No," 
replied  the  boy,  "I  don't  see  any  use  in  eating 
spiced  pickles.  It  doesn't  help  to  make  me  any 
stronger;  my  teacher  says  it  doesn't."  If  this 
kind  of  training  can  be  carried  out,  such  a 
childhood  will  grow  into  a  young  manhood 
which,  when  tempted,  can  easily  say,  "  No.  I 
see  no  use  in  that.  It  will  help  to  make  me 
neither  a  stronger  nor  a  better  man." 


The  Training  of  the  Senses.  55 

Almost  any  Kiudergartner  will  tell  you  that 
children  are  easily  trained  to  prefer  wholesome 
to  unwholesome  food,  even  when  all  the  home 
influences  are  against  the  training.  I  had 
charge  one  year  of  a  class  of  children  who  were 
indulged  in  their  home  life  in  almost  every  re- 
spect. On  one  occasion  an  injudicious  mother 
sent  to  the  Kindergarten  a  very  large  birthday 
cake,  richly  ornamented  with  candied  fruits 
and  other  sweets.  In  cutting  the  cake,  I  quite 
incidentally  said:  "We  do  not  wish  to  upset 
any  of  our  stomachs  with  these  sweets,  so  we 
will  lay  them  aside,"  suiting  the  action  to  the 
word.  After  each  child  had  eaten  a  good  sized 
slice  of  the  cake  (a  privilege  always  allowed  on 
a  birthday),  there  was  at  least  one-third  of  it 
left.  Not  a  child  out  of  the  twenty  asked  for 
a  second  piece,  nor  for  a  bit  of  the  confection- 
ery. This  was  not  because  they  were  in  any 
way  suppressed,  or  afraid  to  make  their  wishes 
known,  for  they  felt  almost  absolutely  free  and 
were  accustomed  to  ask  for  anything  de- 
sired; it  was  simply  that,  through  previous 
plays,  talks  and  stories,  they  had  learned  that  I 
did  not  approve  of  such  things  for  children,  so 
when  with  me  they  did  not  either.  Thus,  easily 
and  imperceptibly  are  little  children  moulded. 
The  mother  who  holds  herself  responsible  for 


56         The  Instinct  of  Investigation,  or 

what  her  child  shall  wear,  and  yet  does  not  feel 
that  she  is  answerable  for  what  he  shall  eat, 
shows  that  she  regards  his  outer  appearance 
more  than  his  health  of  body  or  moral  strength. 

The  danger  of  wrong  training  lies  not  alone 
in  the  indulgence  of  the  sense  of  taste.  Tes- 
timony is  not  wanting  of  the  evil  effects  of  the 
cultivation  of  the  relish  side  of  the  other  senses 
also.  After  giving  a  lesson  on  the  training  of 
the  senses  to  a  class  in  Chicaofo,  a  stranger  to 
me  introduced  herself  as  having  formerly  been 
a  missionary  to  the  Sandwich  Islands.  "  This 
lesson  has  explained,"  said  she,  "  a  custom 
among  the  Sandwich  Islanders,  which  I  never 
before  understood.  When  the  natives  begin 
their  religious  rites  and  ceremonies,  which, 
you  know,  are  very  licentious,  the  women  are 
in  the  habit  of  decking  themselves  with  wreaths 
of  orange  blossoms  and  other  flowers,  which 
have  a  strongly  agreeable  scent,  until  the  air 
is  heavy  with  the  odor." 

"  Do  you  not  know  who  are  usually  the  over- 
perfumed  women  of  our  land?  "  asked  I.  "  And 
yet  I  know  scores  of  mothers  who  unconsciously 
train  their  children  to  revel  in  an  excessive  in- 
dulgence in  perfumery." 

Mr.  William  Tomlins,  a  man  who  has  almost 
regenerated   the   musical  world  for  children, 


The  Training  of  the  Senses.  57 

once  said,  in  a  talk  on  musical  education:  "If 
music  ends  only  in  fitting  us  to  enjoy  it  our- 
selves, it  becomes  selfishly  enervating,  and  this 
reacts  on  the  musical  tone.''"'  Therefore,  he  has 
long  made  a  habit  of  teaching  the  hundreds  of 
children  who  come  under  his  instruction,  to 
sing  sweetly  and  to  enunciate  clearly,  that  they 
may  be  worthy  of  singing  at  this  or  that  concert 
for  the  benefit  of  some  grand  charity.  The 
dissipation  which  is  seen  in  the  lives  of  so  many 
of  this  most  ennobling  profession  is  thus  easily 
explained.  Their  music  has  been  carried  for- 
ward with  too  little  thought  of  the  pleasure  it 
could  give  to  others. 

Nor  does  this  far-reaching  thought  stop  with 
the  right  and  wrong  training  of  the  senses. 
The  mother  who  praises  her  child's  curls  or 
rosy  cheeks  rather  than  the  child's  actions  or 
inner  motives,  is  developing  the  relish  side  of 
character — placing  beauty  of  appearance  over 
and  above  beauty  of  conduct.  The  father  who 
takes  his  boy  to  the  circus,  and,  passing  by  the 
menagerie  and  acrobat's  skill,  teaches  the  boy 
to  enjoy  the  clown  and  like  parts  of  the  exhibi- 
tion, is  leading  to  the  development  of  the  relish 
side  of  amusement,  and  is  training  the  child  to 
regard  excitement  and  recreation  as  necessarily 
one  and  the  same  thing. 


58         The  Instinct  of  Investigation,  or 

Fashionable  parties  for  children,  those  abom- 
inations upon  the  face  of  the  earth,  are  but  sea- 
soned condiments  of  that  most  wholesome  food 
for  the  young  soul,  social  contact  with  its 
peers.  That  so  simple,  so  sweet,  so  holy, 
and  so  necessary  a  thing  as  the  commingling  of 
little  children  in  play  and  work  with  those  of 
their  own  age  and  ability,  should  be  twisted 
and  turned  into  an  artificial  fashionable  party, 
seems,  to  the  real  lover  of  childhood,  incredi- 
ble, save  for  the  sad  fact  that  it  is. 

Even  our  Sunday  Schools,  with  their  prizes 
and  exhibitions  and  sensational  programs,  are 
not  exempt  from  the  crime.  I  have  seen  the  holy 
Easter  festival  so  celebrated  by  Sunday  Schools 
that,  so  far  as  its  effects  upon  the  younger 
children  were  concerned,  they  might  each  one 
as  well  have  been  given  a  glass  of  intoxicating 
liquor,  so  upset  was  their  digestion,  so  excited 
their  brains,  so  demoralized  their  unused  emo- 
tions. 

Need  I  speak  of  the  relish  side  of  the  dress 
of  children?  John  Ruskin,  the  great  apostle 
of  the  beautiful,  claims  that  no  ornament  is 
beautiful  which  has  not  a  use. 

The  relish,  perhaps,  whose  demoralizing  in- 
fluence is  beginning  to  be  suspected,  is  that  of 
highly-seasoned  literature,  if  we  may  call  such 


The  Training  of  the  Senses.  59 

writing  by  the  name  of  that  which  stands  for 
all  that  is  best  of  the  thoughts  and  experiences 
of  the  human  race.  Mothers  and  teachers  can 
not  too  earnestly  sift  the  reading  matter  of  the 
children  of  whom  they  have  charge.  There 
are,  aside  from  the  text  books  needed  in  their 
school  work,  some  few  great  books  which  have 
stood  the  test  of  time  and  critics.  Teach  your 
children  to  understand  and  to  love  these.  Above 
all,  as  a  means  of  culture,  as  well  as  a  means 
of  inspiration  and  a  guide  to  conduct,  would  I 
recommend  that  book  of  books,  the  Bible,  to 
be  the  constant  companion  of  mother  and 
child. 

Some  may  fall  into  the  minor  danger  of 
teaching  the  child  too  great  discrimination,  un- 
til he  becomes  an  epicure.  The  child  who 
pushes  away  his  oatmeal  because  it  has  milk 
instead  of  cream  over  it,  is  in  a  fair  way  to 
grow  into  the  man  who  will  push  away  the  mass 
of  humanity  because  they  are  unwashed.  God 
pity  him  if  he  does! 

I  once  knew  of  a  call  which  came  from  a  large 
and  needy  district  to  a  young  woman  who  seem- 
ingly longed,  with  all  her  heart,  to  be  of  use  in 
the  world.  "But,"  said  she  to  me,  "I  cannot 
possibly  go;  the  salary  is  only  seven  hundred 
dollars,  and  that  would  not  pay  even  for  the  ne- 


60  The  Instinct  of  Investigation, 

cessaries  of  life  with  me."   So  she  continues  to 
live  a  barren,  unsatisfied  life. 

I  knew  another  fine-brained,beautiful  woman, 
whose  insight  was  far  beyond  her  times,  to 
whom  there  came  a  grand  opportunity  to  ad- 
vance a  great  cause.  "  I  cannot,"  she  said  de- 
spairingly, "  do  without  my  china  and  cut- 
glass,  the  disease  of  luxury  has  fast  hold  upon 
me."  "So  train  your  child,"  says  Emerson, 
"  that  at  the  age  of  thirty  or  forty,  he  shall  not 
have  to  say,  '  This  great  thing  could  1  do  but 
for  the  lack  of  tools.'  "  So  train  him,  I  would 
add,  that  he  shall  not  have  to  say,  "All  my 
time  and  strength  is  spent  in  obtaining  super- 
fluities, which  have  become  necessities  to  me." 
Goethe  teaches  us  this  great  lesson  in  his 
drama  of  Faust.  He  who  studies  attentively 
this  marvelous  poem  can  be  saved  the  sad  fate 
of  becoming  a  Faust  in  order  that  he  may  solve 
"  the  Faust  problem."  With  master  strokes  is 
drawn  the  picture,  which  shows  that  no  grati- 
fication of  human  appetite,  passion  or  ambition, 
brings  in  itself  satisfaction  and  rest,  but  he 
alone  who  lives  for  others  as  well  as  for  himself 
can  truly  say  unto  his  life,  "  Ah,  still  delay — 
thou  art  so  fair." 


CHAPTEE    III. 


THE  MIND. 


THE    INSTINCT    OF    POWER,  OR    THE    TRAINING  OF 
THE     EMOTIONS. 

Old  Homer,  back  in  the  past  ages,  shows  us  a 
charming  picture  of  Nausicaa  and  her  maidens, 
after  a  hard  day's  washing,  resting  themselves 
with  a  game  of  ball.  Thus  we  see  this  most 
free  and  graceful  plaything  connected  with  that 
free  and  beautifully  developed  nation  which  has 
been  the  admiration  of  the  world  ever  since. 
Plato  has  said,  "  The  plays  of  children  have  the 
mightiest  influence  on  the  maintenance  or  non- 
maintenance  of  laws  ;"  and  again,  "  During  ear- 
liest childhood,  the  soul  of  the  nursling  should 
be  made  cheerful  and  kind,  by  keeping  away 
from  him  sorrow  and  fear  and  pain,  by  sooth- 
ing him  with  sound  of  the  pipe  and  of  rhyth- 
mical movement."  He  still  further  advised 
that  the  children  should  be  brought  to  the 
temples,  and  allowed  to  play  under  the  super- 
vision of  nurses,  presumably  trained  for  that 
purpose.  Here  we  see  plainly  foreshadowed 
the  Kindergarten,  whose  foundation  is  "  educa- 
tion by  play  " ;  as  the  study  of  the  Kindergar- 
6i 


62  The  Instinct  of  Power,  or 

ten  system  leads  to  the  earnest,  thoughtful 
consideration  of  the  office  of  play,  and  the 
exact  value  which  the  plaything  or  toy  has  in 
the  development  of  the  child  ;  when  this  is 
once  understood,  the  choice  of  what  toys  to  give 
to  children  is  easily  made. 

In  the  world  of  nature,  we  find  the  blossom 
comes  before  the  fruit;  in  history,  art  arose 
long  before  science  was  possible ;  in  the  human 
race,  the  emotions  are  developed  sooner  than 
the  reason.  "With  the  individual  child  it  is  the 
same;  the  childish  heart  opens  spontaneously 
in  play,  the  barriers  are  down,  and  the  loving 
mother  or  the  wise  teacher  can  find  entrance 
into  the  inner  court  as  in  no  other  way.  The 
child's  sympathies  can  be  attracted  towards  an 
object,  person,  or  line  of  conduct,  much  earlier 
than  his  reason  can  grasp  any  one  of  them. 
His  emotional  nature  can  and  does  receive  im- 
pressions long  before  his  intellectual  nature  is 
ready  for  them ;  in  other  words,  he  can  love  be- 
fore he  can  understand. 

One  of  the  mistakes  of  our  age  is,  that  we 
begin  by  educating  our  children's  intellects 
rather  than  their  emotions.  We  leave  these  all- 
powerful  factors,  which  give  to  life  its  coloring 
of  light  or  darkness,  to  the  oftentimes  insuffi- 
cient training  of  the  ordinary  family  life — in- 


The  Training  of  the  Emotions.  63 

sufficient,  owing  to  its  thousand  interruptions 
and  preoccupations.  The  results  are,  that  many 
children  grow  up  cold,  hard,  matter-of-fact, 
with  little  of  poetry,  sympathy,  or  ideality  to 
enrich  their  lives, — mere  Gradgrinds  in  God's 
world  of  beauty.  We  starve  the  healthful  emo- 
tions of  children  in  order  that  we  may  overfeed 
their  intellects.  Is  not  this  doing  them  a 
great  wrong?  When  the  sneering  tone  is 
heard,  and  the  question  "Will  it  pay?"  is  the 
all-important  one,  do  we  not  see  the  result  of 
such  training?  Possibly  the  unwise  training 
of  the  emotional  nature  may  give  it  undue  pre- 
ponderance, producing  morbid  sentimentalists, 
who  think  that  the  New  Testament  would  be 
greatly  improved  if  the  account  of  Christ  driv- 
ing the  money-changers  from  the  temple,  or 
His  denunciation  of  the  Pharisees,  could  be 
omitted.  Such  people  feed  every  able-bodied 
tramp  brought  by  chance  to  their  doors,  and 
yet  make  no  effort  to  lighten  the  burden  of 
the  poor  sewing-women  of  our  great  cities, 
who  are  working  at  almost  starvation  prices. 
This  is  a  minor  danger,  however.  The  educa- 
tion of  the  heart  must  advance  along  with  that 
of  the  head,  if  well-balanced  character  is  to  be 
developed. 

Pedagogy  tells  us  that  "  the  science  of  educa- 


64  The  Itistinct  of  Power,  or 

Hon  is  the  science  of  inieresfing;  "  and  yet,  but 
few  pedagogues  have  realized  the  importance 
of  educating  the  interest  of  the  child.  In  other 
words,  little  or  no  value  has  been  attached  to 
the  likes  and  dislikes  of  children;  but  in  real- 
ity they  are  very  important. 

A  child  can  be  given  any  quantity  of  infor- 
mation, he  can  be  made  to  get  his  lessons,  he 
can  even  be  crowded  through  a  series  of  exam- 
inations, but  that  is  not  educcding  him.  Unless 
his  interest  in  the  subject  has  been  awakened, 
the  process  has  been  a  failure.  Once  get  him 
thoroughly  interested  and  he  can  educate  himself, 
along  that  line,  at  least. 

Hence  the  value  of  toys;  they  are  not  only 
promoters  of  play,  but  they  appeal  to  the 
sympathies  and  give  exercise  to  the  emo- 
tions; in  this  way  a  hold  is  gotten  upon  the 
child,  by  interesting  him  before  more  intel- 
lectual training  can  make  much  impression. 
The  two  great  obstacles  to  the  exercise  of  the 
right  emotions  are  fear  and  pity;  these  do 
not  come  into  the  toy-world,  hence  we  can  see 
how  toys,  according  to  their  own  tendencies, 
help  in  the  healthful  education  of  the  child's 
emotions,  through  his  emotions  the  education 
of  his  thoughts,  through  his  thoughts  the  edu- 
cation of    his  will,  and  hence  his  character. 


The  Training  of  the  Emotions.  65 

One  can  readily  see  how  this  is  so.  By  means 
of  their  dolls,  wagons,  drums,  or  other  toys, 
children's  thoughts  are  turned  in  certain  direc- 
tions. They  play  that  they  are  mothers  and  fath- 
ers, or  shop-keepers,  or  soldiers,  as  the  case  may 
be.  Through  their  dramatic  play,  they  become 
interested  more  and  more  in  those  phases  of  life 
which  they  have  imitated,  and  that  which  they 
watch  and  imitate  they  become  like. 

The  toy-shops  of  any  great  city  are,  to  him 
who  can  read  the  signs  of  the  times,  prophecies 
of  the  future  of  that  city.  They  not  only  pre- 
dict the  future  career  of  a  people,  but  they  tell 
us  of  national  tendencies.  Seguin,  in  his  report 
on  the  Educational  exhibit  at  Vienna  a  few 
years  ago,  said:  "The  nations  which  had  the 
most  toys  had,  too,  more  individuality,  ideal- 
ity, and  heroism,"  And  again:  "  The  nations 
which  have  been  made  famous  by  their  artists, 
artisans,  and  idealists,  supplied  their  infants 
with  toys."  It  needs  but  a  moment's  thought 
to  recognize  the  truth  of  this  statement.  Child- 
ren who  have  toys  exercise  their  own  imagina- 
tion, put  into  action  their  own  ideals —  Ah  me, 
how  much  that  means!  What  ideals  have  been 
stranofled  in  the  breasts  of  most  of  us  be- 
cause  others  did  not  think  as  we  did !  With  the 
toy.  an  outline  only  is  drawn  ;  the  child  must 


66  The  Instinct  of  Power,  or 

fill  in  the  details.  On  the  other  hand,  in  story 
books  the  details  are  given.  Both  kinds  of 
training  are  needed;  individual  development, 
and  participation  in  the  development  of  others — 
of  the  world,  of  the  past,  of  the  All.  "With  this 
thought  of  the  influence  of  toys  upon  the  life 
of  nations,  a  visit  to  any  large  toy-shop  becomes 
an  interesting  and  curious  study.  The  follow- 
ing is  the  testimony,  unconsciously  given,  by 
the  shelves  and  counters  in  one  of  the  large 
importing  establishments  which  gather  together 
and  send  out  the  playthings  of  the  world. 
The  French  toys  include  nearly  all  the  pewter 
soldiers,  all  guns  and  swords;  surely,  such 
would  be  the  toys  of  the  nation  which  pro- 
duced a  Napoleon.  All  Punch  and  Judy 
shows  are  of  French  manufacture;  almost  all 
miniature  theatres;  all  doll  tea-sets  which 
have  wine  glasses  and  finger  bowls  attached. 
The  French  dolls  mirror  the  fashionable  world, 
with  all  its  finery  and  unneeded  luxury,  and 
hand  it  down  to  the  little  child.  No  wonder 
Frances  "Willard  made  a  protest  against  dolls, 
if  she  had  in  mind  the  French  doll. 

"  You  see,"  said  the  guileless  saleswoman,  as 
she  handed  me  first  one  and  then  another  of 
these  dolls,  thinking  doubtless  that  she  had  a 
slow   purchaser   whom    she   had   to  assist  m 


The  Training  of  the  Emotions.  67 

making  a  selection,  "you  can  dress  one  of 
these  dolls, as  a  lady,  or  as  a  little  girl,  just  as 
you  like."  And,  sure  enough,  the  very  baby 
dolls  had  upon  their  faces  the  smile  of  the 
society  flirt,  or  the  deep  passionate  look  of 
the  woman  who  had  seen  the  world.  I  beheld 
the  French  Salons  of  the  eighteenth  century 
still  lingering  in  the  nineteenth  century  dolls. 
All  their  toys  are  dainty,  artistic,  exquisitely 
put  together,  but  lack  strength  and  power  of 
endurance,  are  low  or  shallow  in  aim,  and  are 
oftentimes  inappropriate  in  the  extreme.  For 
instance,  I  was  shown  a  Noah's  Ark  with  a  rose- 
window  of  stained  glass  in  one  end  of  it.  Do 
we  not  see  the  same  thing  in  French  literature  ? 
Racine's  Orestes,  bowing  and  complimenting 
his  Iphigenia,  is  the  same  French  adornment  of 
the  strong,  simple,  Greek  story  that  the  pretty 
window  was  of  the  Hebrew  Ark. 

The  German  toys  take  another  tone.  They 
are  heavier,  stronger,  and  not  so  artistic,  and 
largely  represent  the  home  and  the  more  prim- 
itive forms  of  trade-life.  From  Germany  we 
get  all  our  ready-made  doll-houses,  with  their 
clean  tile  floors  and  clumsy  porcelain  stoves, 
their  parlors  with  round  iron  center-tables,  and 
stiff,  ugly  chairs  with  the  inevitable  lace  tidies. 
Here  and  there  in  these  miniature  houses  we 


68  Tlie  Instinct  of  Power,  or 

see  a  tiny  pot  of  artificial  flowers.  All  such 
playthings  tend  to  draw  the  child's  thoughts 
to  the  home-life.  Next  come  the  countless 
number  of  toy  butcher  shops,  bakers,  black- 
smiths, and  other  representations  of  the  small, 
thrifty,  healthful  trade-life  which  one  sees  all 
over  Germany.  Nor  is  the  child's  love  attract- 
ed toward  the  home  and  the  shops  alone. 
Almost  all  of  the  better  class  of  toy  horses  and 
carts  are  of  German  manufacture.  The  "  woolly 
sheep,"  so  dear  to  childish  heart,  is  of  the  same 
origin.  Thus  a  love  for  simple,  wholesome 
out-of-door  activities  is  instilled. 

And  then  the  German  dolls  !  One  would 
know  from  the  dolls  alone  that  Germany  was 
the  land  of  Froebel  and  the  birthplace  of  the 
Kindergarten,  that  it  was  the  country  where 
even  the  beer-gardens  are  softened  and  refined 
by  the  family  presence.  All  the  regulation 
ornaments  for  Christmas  trees  come  from  this 
nation,  bringing  with  them  memories  of  Luther ; 
of  his  breaking  away  from  the  celibacy  en- 
joined by  the  church ;  of  his  entering  into  the 
joyous  family  life,  and  trying  to  bring  with  him 
into  the  home  life  all  that  was  sacred  in  the 
church — Christmas  festivals  along  with  the 
rest.  Very  few  firearms  come  from  this  nation, 
but  among  them  I  saw  some  strong  cast-iron 


The  Training  of  the  Emotions.  69 

cannons  fi'om  Berlin ;  they  looked  as  if  Bismarck 
himself  might  have  ordered  their  manufacture. 

The  Swiss  toys  are  largely  the  bluntly  carved 
wooden  cattle,  sheep  and  goats,  with  equally 
blunt  shepherds  and  shepherdesses,  reminding 
one  forcibly  of  the  dull  faces  of  those  much- 
enduring  beasts  of  burden  called  Swiss  peas- 
ants. I  once  saw  a  Swiss  girl  who  had  sold  to 
an  American  woman,  for  a  few  francs,  three 
handkerchiefs,  the  embroidering  of  which  had 
occupied  the  evenings  of  her  entire  winter; 
there  was  no  look  of  discontent  or  disgust  as 
the  American  tossed  them  into  her  trunk  with 
a  lot  of  other  trinkets,  utterly  oblivious  of  the 
amount  of  human  life  which  had  been  patiently 
worked  into  them.  What  kind  of  toys  could 
come  from  a  people  among  whom  such  scenes 
are  accepted  as  a  matter  of  course? 

The  English  rag  doll  is  peculiarly  national 
in  its  placidity  of  countenance.  The  British 
people  stand  pre-eminent  in  the  matter  of  story 
books  for  children,  but,  so  far  as  I  have  been 
able  to  observe,  are  somewhat  lacking  in  origin- 
ality as  to  toys  ;  possibly  this  is  due  to  the 
out-of-door  life  encouraged  among  them. 

When  I  asked  to  see  the  American  toys,  my 
guide  turned,  and  with  a  sweep  of  her  hand 
said:     "  These  trunks  are  American.    All  doll- 


70  The  Instinct  of  Power,  or 

trunks  are  manufactured  in  this  country." 
Surely  our  Emerson  was  right  when  he  said 
that  "  the  tape -worm  of  travel  was  in  every 
American."  Here  we  see  the  beginning  of  the 
restless,  migratory  spirit  of  our  people;  even 
these  children's  toys  suggest,  "  How  nice  it 
would  be  to  pack  up  and  go  somewhere !  "  All 
tool-chests  are  of  domestic  origin.  Seemingly, 
all  the  inventions  of  the  Yankee  mind  are  re- 
produced in  miniature  form  to  stimulate  the 
young  genius  of  our  country. 

The  Japanese  and  Chinese  toys  are  a  curious 
study,  telling  of  national  traits  as  clearly  as  do 
their  laws  or  their  religion.  They  are  endur- 
able, made  to  last  unchanged  a  long  time  ;  no 
flimsy  tinsel  is  used  which  can  be  admired  for 
the  hour,  then  cast  aside.  If  "the  hand  of 
Confucius  reaches  down  through  twenty-four 
centuries  of  time  still  governing  his  people," 
so,  too,  can  the  carved  ivory  or  inlaid  wooden 
toy  be  used  without  injury  or  change  by 
at  least  one  or  two  successive  generations  of 
children. 

Let  us  turn  to  the  study  of  the  development 
of  the  race  as  a  whole,  that  we  may  the  better 
grasp  this  thought.  The  toy  not  only  directs 
the  emotional  activity  of  the  child,  but  also 
forms  a  bridge  between  the  great  realities  of 


TJhe  Training  of  the  Emotions.  71 

life  and  his  small  capacities.  To  man  was 
given  the  dominion  over  the  earth,  but  it  was 
a  potential  dominion.  He  had  to  conquer  the 
beasts  of  the  field;  to  develop  the  resources  of 
the  earth;  by  his  own  effort,  to  subordinate  all 
things  else  unto  himself.  We  see  the  faint 
foreshadowing,  or  presentiment,  of  this  in  the 
myths  and  legends  of  the  race.  The  famous 
wooden  horse  of  Troy,  accounts  of  which  have 
come  down  to  us  in  a  dozen  different  channels 
of  literature  and  history,  seems  to  have  been 
the  forerunner  of  the  nineteenth  century  bomb, 
which  defies  walls  and  leaps  into  the  enemy's 
camp,  scattering  death  and  destruction  in  every 
direction.  At  least,  the  two  have  the  same  ef- 
fect; they  speedily  put  an  end  to  physical  re- 
sistance, and  bring  about  consultation  and 
settlement  by  arbitration.  The  labors  of  Her- 
cules tell  the  same  story  in  another  form — man's 
power  to  make  nature  perform  the  labors  ap- 
pointed to  him ;  the  winged  sandals  of  Hermes, 
Perseus'  cloak  of  invisibility,  the  armor  of 
Achilles,  and  a  hundred  other  charming  myths, 
all  tell  us  of  man's  sense  of  his  sovereignty 
over  nature.  The  old  Oriental  stories  of  the 
enchanted  carpet  tell  us  that  the  sultan  and  his 
court  had  but  to  step  upon  it,  ere  it  rose  majes- 
tically and   sailed  unimpeded  through  the  air, 


72  The  Instinct  of  Power,  or 

and  landed  its  precious  freight  at  the  desired 
destination.  Is  not  this  the  dim  feeling  in  the 
breasts  of  the  childish  race  that  man  ought  to 
have  power  to  transcend  space,  and  by  his  intel- 
ligence contrive  to  convey  himself  from  place 
to  place?  Are  not  our  luxurious  palace  cars 
almost  fulfilling  these  early  dreams?  What 
are  the  fairy  tales  of  the  Teutonic  people,  which 
Grimm  has  so  laboriously  collected  for  us? 
They  have  lived  through  centuries  of  time, 
because  they  have  told  of  genii  and  giant,  gov- 
erned by  the  will  of  puny  man  and  made  to  do 
his  bidding.  Eagerly  the  race  has  read  them, 
pleased  to  see  symbolically  pictured  forth  man's 
power  over  elements  stronger  than  himself.  In 
fact,  the  study  of  the  race  development  is 
much  like  the  study  of  those  huge,  almost- 
obliterated  outlines  upon  the  walls  of  Egypt- 
ian temples — dim,  vague,  fragmentary,  yet  giv- 
ing us  glimpses  of  insight  and  flashes  of  light, 
which  aid  much  in  the  understanding  of  the 
meaning  of  to-day.  We  find  the  instincts  of 
the  race  renewed  in  each  new-born  infant. 
Each  individual  child  desires  to  master  his 
surroundings.  He  cannot  yet  drive  a  real 
horse  and  wagon,  but  his  very  soul  delights 
in  the  three-inch  horse  and  the  gaily  painted 
wagon    attached;  he    cannot    tame  real  tigers 


The  Training  of  the  Emotions.  73 

and  lions,  but  his  eyes  dance  with  pleasure  as 
he  places  and  replaces  the  animals  of  his  toy 
menagerie;  he  cannot  at  present  run  engines 
or  direct  railways,  but  he  can  control  for  a 
whole  half-hour  the  movement  of  his  minia- 
ture train;  he  is  not  yet  ready  for  real  father- 
hood, but  he  can  pet  and  play  with,  and  rock 
to  sleep,  and  tenderly  guard  the  doll  baby. 

Dr.  Seguin  also  calls  attention  to  the  fact 
that  a  handsomely  dressed  lady  will  be  passed 
by  unnoticed  by  a  child,  whereas  her  counter- 
part in  a  foot-long  doll  will  call  forth  his  most 
rapt  attention  ;  the  one  is  too  much  for  the 
small  brain,  the  other  is  just  enough. 

The  boy  who  has  a  toy  gun  marches  and  drills 
and  camps  and  fights  many  a  battle  before  the 
real  battle  comes.  The  little  girl  who  has  a 
toy  stove  plays  at  building  a  fire  and  putting 
on  a  kettle  long  before  these  real  responsibil- 
ities come  to  her. 

A  young  mother,  whose  daughter  had  been 
for  some  time  in  a  Kindergarten,  came  to  me 
and  said,  "I  have  been  surprised  to  see  how 
my  little  Katherine  handles  the  baby,  and  how 
sweetly  and  gently  she  talks  to  him."  I 
said  to  the  daughter,  "  Katherine,  where  did 
you  learn  how  to  talk  to  baby,  and  to  take  care 
of  one  so  nicely?  "     "  Why,  that's  the  way  we 


74  The  Insiinct  of  Power. 

talk  to  tlie  dolly  at  Kindergarten!"  she  replied. 
Her  powers  of  baby-loving  had  been  developed 
definitely  by  the  toy -baby,  so  that  when  the 
real  baby  came,  she  was  ready  to  transfer  her 
tenderness  to  the  larger  sphere.  Thus,  as  I 
said  before,  toys  form  a  bridge  between  the 
great  realities  and  possibilities  of  life,  and  the 
small  capacities  of  the  child.  If  wisely  select- 
ed, they  lead  him  on  from  conquering  yet  to 
conquer.  Thus  he  enters  ever  widening  and 
increasing  fields  of  activity,  until  he  stands  as 
God  intended  he  should  stand,  the  master  of  all 
the  elements  and  forces  about  him,  until  he  can 
bid  the  solid  earth,  "  Bring  forth  thy  treasures ;" 
until  he  can  say  unto  the  great  ocean,  "  Thus 
far  shalt  thou  go  and  no  farther;"  until  he 
can  call  unto  the  quick  lightning,  "Speak  thou 
my  words  across  a  continent;"  until  he  can 
command  the  fierce  fire,  "  Do  thou  my  bid- 
ding;" and  earth,  and  air,  and  fire,  and  water, 
become  the  servants  of  the  divine  intelligence 
which  is  within  him. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE    INSTINCT    OF    LOVE,    OR    THE    TRAINING    OF 
THE   AFFECTIONS. 

With  the  first  dawning  smile  upon  the  in- 
.  f ant's  face  the  instinct  of  love  awakes.     Until 
the  last  sacrifice  of  life  itself  for  the  loved  ob- 
ject— aye,  on   up  to  that    sublime    exaltation 
which  can  say  even  though  He  slay  me,  yet 
will  I  trust    Him,    love  is  the    great    motive 
power  which  enriches  and  ennobles  life.     Can 
we,  therefore,  too  carefully  watch  and  train  its 
first  growth  ?     In  every  stage  of  man's  devel- 
opment, unselfish  love  plays  a  part;  it  is  the 
r  basis  of  all  contentment  within  one's  own  soul ; 
I  of    all  happiness  in    the    family    life;    of    all 
[  friendship  in  the  social  world;  of  all  patriot- 
\  ism  in  state  affairs;  of  all  philosophic  under- 
/  standing  of   the  world-order;  of  all  religious 
contemplation  of  God.     Yet   this  instinct,  so 
I  manifest  in  each   infant  as  it    holds    out    its 
i  loving  arms  to  its  father,  or  hides  its  face  upon 
I  its  mother's  shoulder  from  the  gaze  of  a  stran- 
[  ger,  does  not  always   serve   the    purpose    for 
I  which  it  has  been  assuredly  given.     Loving 
f  warm-hearted  little   children  grow  into  cold, 
i  75 


76  The  Instinct  of  Love,  or 

selfish  men  and  women,  and  many  a  parent 
who  has  given  his  all  to  his  children  has  to 
exclaim  with  Lear,  "  How  sharper  than  a  ser- 
pent's tooth  it  is  to  have  a  thankless  child!  " 
Selfishness  is  the  most  universal  of  all  sins, 
and  the  most  hateful.  Dante  has  placed  Luci- 
fer, the  embodiment  of  selfishness,  down  below 
all  other  sinners  in  the  dark  pit  of  the  Inferno, 
frozen  in  a  sea  of  ice.  Well  did  the  poet  know 
that  this  sin  lay  at  the  root  of  all  others. 
Think,  if  you  can,  of  one  crime  or  vice  which 
has  not  its  origin  in  selfishness.  Why  is  this? 
To  one  who  has  thoughtfully  and  carefully 
studied  the  subject,  the  cause  of  the  wide- 
spread prevalance  of  selfishness  is  not  hidden. 
It  lies  largely  in  the  mother's  non-apprehension 
of  the  right  treatment  of  her  child's  earliest 
manifestations  of  love.  As  the  instinctive  ac- 
tivity of  the  child  can  descend  into  destruc- 
tion or  ascend  into  creativity  ;  as  the  undisci- 
plined or  disciplined  exercise  of  the  senses  can 
degenerate  into  unbridled  gratification  of  the 
passions,  or  can  grow  into  moral  control  of  all 
the  life;  as  the  spontaneous,  imitative  play  of 
the  child  can  fill  his  mind  with  weak  and 
vicious  examples  to  be  copied,  or  inspire  his 
life  with  high  and  noble  ideals  to  be  followed ; 
as  the  inborn  desire  for  recoofnition  can  devel- 


The  Training  of  the  Affections,  77 

op  into  bragging  vanity,  or  expand  into  rever- 
ent endeavor, — so  too  lias  the  instinct  of  love 
its  two-fold  tendency.  There  is  a  physical 
love  which  expresses  itself  in  the  mere  kiss,  and 
hug,  and  word  of  endearment.  This  is  not  the 
all-purifying,  all-glorious  love,  so  elevating  to 
every  life;  it  is  but  the  door,  or  entrance,  to 
that  other  higher  form  of  love  which  manifests 
itself  in  service  and  self-sacrifice. 

The  love  which  instinctively  comes  from  a 
child  to  its  mother  is  usually  shown  in  the 
caressing  touch  of  the  baby  hands,  the  tre- 
mendous hug  of  the  little  arms,  the  coaxing 
kiss  of  the  rosy  lips,  and  is  to  the  fond  mother 
an  inexpressible  delight.  Nor  need  she  rob 
herself  of  one  such  moment;  while  her  child 
is  in  the  loving  mood,  let  her  ask  of  him  some 
little  service,  very  slight  at  first,  but  enough 
to  make  him  put  forth  an  effort  to  aid  her. 
Thus  can  she  transform  the  mere  selfish  love 
of  the  child  into  the  beginning  of  that  spirit- 
ual love  which  Christ  commended  when  he 
said,  "  If  ye  love  me,  keep  my  commandments," 
Let  her  remember  that  against  the  mere  pro- 
testations of  attachment,  He  also  uttered  those 
stern  words  of  warning,  "  Not  every  one  that 
saith  unto  me.  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into 
the  kingdom  of  Heaven,  but  he  that^doeth  the 


78  The  Instinct  of  Love,  or 

will  of  my  Father  which  is  in  Heaven."  The 
parent  stands,  for  the  time  being,  to  his  child 
as  the  one  supreme  source  to  whom  he  looks  for 
all  things ;  the  center  of  all  his  tiny  affections. 
The  relationship  established  between  parent 
and  child  is  apt  to  become,  in  time,  the  rela- 
tionship between  the  soul  and  its  God.  The 
thought  is  a  solemn  one,  but  a  true  one. 

The  earthly  affections  are  the  ladders  by 
which  the  heart  climbs  to  universal  love. 
"  Love  is  to  he  tested  always  by  its  effect  upon 
the  loilV  The  grace  of  God  can  turn  the 
weak,  selfish  will  from  thoughts  of  self  to 
thoughts  of  others,  but  it  cannot  make  a  life 
all  that  the  life  would  have  been,  had  that  will 
from  the  beginning  been  made  strong  and  un- 
selfish by  repeated  acts  of  loving  self-sacrifice, 
even  in  human  relationship.  Contrast  for 
yourself  the  selfish,  all-absorbing  love  of  a 
Romeo  and  a  Juliet  who  could  not  live  if  the 
physical  presence  of  the  loved  one  were  taken 
away,  with  that  grandly  beautiful  love  of  Hec- 
tor for  Andromache,  who,  out  of  the  very  love 
he  bore  her,  could  place  her  at  one  side  and 
answer  the  stern  call  of  duty,  that  she  might 
never  in  her  future  memory  of  him  have  cause 
for  painful  blush.  It  has  been  one  of  the 
great   privileges   of   my  life  to  have  had  en- 


The  Training  of  the  Affections.  79 

trance  to  an  almost  ideal  home,  wliere  husband 

and   wife    were  filled  with    the  most    exalted 

love  I  have  ever  known.     In  time  the  husband 

was  called  hence.     The  wife  said:    "All  that 

was  beautiful  or  attractive  in  my  life  went  out 

with  my  husband,  and  yet  I  know  that  I  must, 

for  the  very  love  I  bear  him,  remain  and  rear 

our  child  as  he  would  have  him  reared."   As  I 

listened  to  these  words,  quietly  uttered  by  the 

courageous  wife,  I  realized  what  love,  real  love, 

could  help  the  poor  human  heart  to  endure. 

Froebel,  believing  so  earnestly  that  it  was 

only  by  repeated  training  in  many  small   acts 

of   self-sacrifice  that   the  child  attained  unto 

the  right  kind  of  love,  would  have  the  mothei 

begin  with  her  babe  in  her  arms,  to  play  that 

its  wee  fingers  were  weaving  themselves  into  a 

basket  which  was  to  be  filled  with  imaginary 

flowers  to  be  presented  to  papa  as  a  token  of 

baby's    love.      The    motto    intended    for    the 

mother,  in   the  little  "Flower  Basket"  song, 

says  : 

"  Seek  to  shape  outwardly 
Whatever  moves  the  heart  of  the  child, 
Because  even  the  child's  love  can  decay 
If  not  nourished  carefully." 

A  statement  of    the  same  truth  in    general 
terms  would  be  that  the  inward  must  always 


80  Tlie  InsUnd  of  Love,  or 

find  expression  in  the  outward  if  it  would  have 
a  healthful  completeness.  Especially  is  this 
true  of  any  tender  emotion  or  sentiment,  which, 
unused,  soon  degenerates  into  mere  sentiment- 
ality, becoming  satisfied  with  itself  as  a  de- 
lightful sensation,  or,  worse  still,  shrivels  up 
into  skepticism  or  cynical  doubt  as  to  the  real- 
ity of  any  genuine  emotion. 

Froebel  would  show  the  mother  what  a 
mighty  instrument  in  her  hands  such  childish 
play  can  become,  "  and,"  says  Madam  Maren- 
holtz  von  Bulow,  "  none  but  those  who  do  not 
understand  and  observe  the  nature  and  character 
of  children,  who  have  forgotten  their  own  child- 
hood, will  consider  it  a  piece  of  far-fetched 
absurdity  thus  to  interpret  the  earliest  games 
of  children  as  the  starting-point  of  the  life  of 
the  Soul,  J,nd  the  beginning  of  mental  develop- 
ment." The  mother's  effort  is  in  nowise  to  stop 
with  the  jplayful  service  of  her  child  but  by 
such  plays  she  can  incline  him  toward  the 
desired  line  of  conduct.  She  is  to  bear  ever  in 
mind  the  words  of  the  beloved  disciple,  "He 
that  loveth  not  his  brother  whom  he  hath  seen. 
how  can  he  love  God  whom  he  hath  not  seen?  " 
That  there  might  be  no  mistake  as  to  the  kind 
of  brotherly  love  here  referred  to,  the  aged 
saint  had  already  explained,  "  whoso  hath  this 


The  Training  of  the  Affections.  81 

vvorld's  good,  and  seeth  his  brother  have  need, 
and  shutteth  up  his  bowels  of  compassion  from 
him,  how  dwelleth  the  love  of  God  in  him?" 
With  the  realization  of  the  necessity  of  early 
and  constant  training  that  the  great  end  may 
be  attained,  the  mother  is  to  exercise,  in  the 
little  immortal,  this  divine  kind  of  love,  through 
his  every-day  contact  with  herself  and  his 
father,  his  brothers  and  sisters,  in  order  that  his 
effortless  love  may  develop  into  the  kind  which 
can  not  die.  Of  all  the  essentials  of  true 
character-building,  there  is  perhaps  none  more 
important  than  this,  that  the  child  should  learn, 
through  love,  to  give  up  his  own  will  to  others ; 
for  the  sake  of  others  should  learn  from  the 
very  beginning  of  life  to  submit  to  things  which 
are  unpleasant  to  him.  It  would  not  be  diffi- 
cult to  make  children  obey,  if  this  thought  had 
been  carried  out  from  the  beginning,  before 
egotism,  self-will  and  selfishness  had  gotten 
fast  hold  upon  the  young  heart,  "Again," 
says  Madam  Marenholtz,  "  all  work,  all  ex- 
ercises which  awaken  the  active  powers,  which 
form  the  capacity  for  rendering  loving  service 
to  fellow  creatures,  will  help  to  lay  the  ground- 
work of  religion  in  the  child.  The  awakening 
of  love  goes  before  that  of  faith;  he  who  does 
not  love  can  not  believe.    Loving  self-surrender 


82  The  Instinct  of  Love,  or 

to  what  is  higher  than  ourselves,  to  the  Highest 
of  All,  is  the  beginning  of  faith.  But  love 
must  show  itself  in  deeds,  and  this  will  be  im- 
possible unless  there  is  a  capacity  for  doing, 
A  child  can  no  more  be  educated  to  a  life  of 
religion  and  faith  without  the  exercise  of 
personal  activity  than  heroic  deeds  can  be  ac- 
complished with  words  only." 

Never  should  the  mother,  through  that  foolish 
desire  to  keep  her  child  as  long  as  possible 
dependent  upon  her,  or  that  worse  pride  which 
would  show  itself  to  be  self-sufficient,  refuse 
the  proffered  help  of  her  child.  If  she  is  doing 
something  in  which,  from  the  nature  of  the 
thing,  he  can  not  share,  let  her  be  careful  to 
substitute  some  other  loving  service  while  de- 
clining the  one  proffered,  remembering  that 
love,  turned  away,  nourishes  selfishness ;  and 
proffered  help  refused,  begets  idleness.  She 
may  have  to  say,  "  No,  dear,  you  can  not  help 
dress  the  baby ; "  she  can  add,  "  you  may  hand 
mamma  the  clothes."  I  know  of  one  household 
in  which  it  is  as  much  the  self-imposed  duty 
of  the  child  of  three  to  patiently  hold  the  towel 
and  soap,  until  needed,  as  it  is  the  mother's 
part  to  bathe  the  year-old  brother.  In  another 
household  in  which  the  six-year  old  child  had 
long  been  taught  that  true  love  showed  itself 


The  Training  of  the  Affections.  §3 

in  service  rather  than  protestations,  the  mother 
was  one  day  compelled  by  a  severe  headache 
to  shut  herself  up  in  a  darkened  room.  Her 
boy  soon  opened  the  door  and  asked  her  some 
question.  "  Mamma  can  not  talk  to  you  to- 
day, Philip,  she  has  a  headache.  Go  out  and 
shut  the  door."  The  door  was  quietly  closed, 
and  in  a  few  moments  a  mysterious  bumping 
and  rolling  about  of  the  furniture  was  heard 
in  the  next  room.  All  was  still  for  a  short- 
time.  Then  softly  and  gently  the  door  was 
again  opened,  and  little  Philip  stepped  on  tip- 
toe to  his  mother's  bedside.  "Mamma,"  said 
he,  "  I've  straightened  the  furniture  in  the 
sitting-room  all  up  so  nicely,  and  fixed  your 
work  basket;  isn't  your  headache  better?" 
The  loving  little  heart  had  prompted  this 
difficult  service  in  order  that  the  love  called 
forth  by  her  suffering  might  find  vent. 

All  birthdays,  Christmas  celebrations,  and 
other  festivals,  can  be  made  occasions  for  the 
uniting  of  the  whole  family  in  glad  and  loving 
service  for  the  honored  one,  who  in  his  turn 
may  serve  to  an  extra  extent  the  others,  because 
the  honors  of  the  day  have  been  conferred  upon 
him.  In  most  of  our  Kindergartens,  the  child 
who  is  selected  as  leader  for  each  day  has  also 
the  office  of  distributing  the  work,  gathering 


84  The  Instinct  of  Love,  or 

up  the  luncheon  baskets,  and  otherwise  waiting 
on  the  rest,  that  he  may  thereby  gain  the  im- 
pression that  honors  and  responsibilities  go 
hand  in  hand,  and  begin  to  realize  the  meaning 
of  the  significant  words,  "  He  that  is  greatest 
among  you  shall  be  your  servant."  Mothers 
have  scarcely  realized  the  value  of  the  family 
festival  rightly  kept,  the  opportunity  it  gives 
them  for  exercising  the  loving  little  hearts  in 
unselfish  love,  more  especially  if  they  and  the 
fathers  enter  into  the  childish  secrets  and 
mystery  of  preparation.  Perhaps  papa  can 
come  home  half  an  hour  earlier  because  it  is 
Mildred's  or  Bradford's  birthday,  and  mamma 
and  Mildred  and  Bradford  can  plan  some  little 
surprise  for  papa  before  he  gets  there ;  it  mat- 
ters not  how  trifling,  provided  each  has  made 
an  effort  to  complete  it. 

If,  at  the  magic  words,  *'  Finish  it  for  mam- 
ma and  let  it  show  her  how  much  you  love 
her,"  mothers  could  see  the  look  of  almost 
angelic  delight  upon  the  little  faces  when 
the  discouraged  hands  have  picked  up  the 
tangled  sewing  card,  or  have  undone  the  wrongly 
woven  mat,  they  would  not  so  often  rob  them- 
selves of  this  pleasure.  This  appeal  to  the 
spiritual  love  can,  as  I  have  already  said,  be 
made  a  means  of  the  noblest  form  of  govern- 


The  Training  of  the  Affections.  85 

ment,  that  of  voluntary,  loving  obedience.  The 
childish  heart  responds  quickly  to  such  an  ap- 
peal, as  it  does  to  all  things  noble  and  generous 
and  beautiful.  At  one  time  I  had  in  my 
Kindergarten  a  delicate,  nervous  child,  who 
occupied  the  chair  next  to  me  in  order  that  I 
might  the  more  carefully  guard  him.  One  day 
he  chanced  to  be  absent,  and  a  rosy  little  Scotch 
lad  asked  if  he  might  not  take  the  place.  I 
consented.  Next  morning,  little  Jean,  the 
frailer  child,  was  again  with  us ;  but  my  sturdy 
young  Scotchman  was  in  the  chair,  and  with 
the  persistence  of  his  race,  refused  to  give  it 
up,  even  holding  on  to  my  dress  in  his  deter- 
mined way.  "Oscar,"  said  I,  "why  do  you 
want  to  sit  next  to  me?"  "Cause  I  love  you 
so  much,"  was  his  honest  and  emphatic  reply. 
"  Why,"  said  I,  in  a  tone  of  assumed  surprise, 
"  isn't  your  love  strong  enough  to  stretch 
across  tlie  table?"  "Yes,  it  is,"  he  answered, 
and  at  once  left  the  contested  seat  and  resumed 
his  usual  place  at  some  distance  from  me. 
Each  time  during  the  morning  that  our  eyes 
met,  his  shone  with  the  light  of  this  higher 
love  ;  he  had  made  what,  to  him,  was  a  sacri- 
fice, to  prove  his  devotion,  and  the  added  hap- 
piness was  his  also. 

Children    usually   delight   to   be   told  that 


86  The  Instinct  of  Love,  or 

their  hands  and  feet  and  bodies  can  tell  their 
love  as  well  as  their  tongues.  A  little  girl 
came  to  me  one  morning  saying,  "My  hands 
loved  you  yesterday."  "Did  they  ?"  I  said. 
"  Tell  me  about  it."  "  Our  baby  tore  my  mat, 
and  I  was  just  going  to  slap  her,  but  I  thought 
of  you,  and  I  didn't."  This  explanation  was 
given  without  the  slightest  thought  of  com- 
mendation for  the  self-control  exercised,  and 
was  passed  over  by  me  as  a  thing  of  course  in 
one  of  my  children  who  really  loved  me. 
There  is  a  story  often  told  by  kindergartners 
when  they  wish  to  establish  this  higher  stand- 
ard of  love  with  a  new  set  of  children.  It  is 
of  the  Franciscan  monks,  who,  in  order  that 
they  might  show  their  love  for  the  Heavenly 
Father,  left  their  homes  and  all  the  pleasant 
things  about  them,  and  spent  their  time  in 
finding  wanderers  who  had  lost  their  way  in 
the  mountain's  snow-storms,  and  in  taking 
care  of  the  sick,  and  in  helping  the  poor,  and 
in  teaching  the  ignorant.  From  the  very  be- 
ginning they  established  a  rule  that  the  older 
monks  should  serve  the  younger  and  those 
who  were  strong  should  wait  on  the  weak,  I 
have  never  heard  this  story  tenderly  and 
attractively  told,  that  it  did  not  have  an  im- 
mediate effect  upon  the  conduct  of  the  older 


The  Training  of  the  Affections.  87 

children.  One  day,  on  perceiving  signs  of 
selfishness  among  my  children,  1  told  it  to 
them,  making  no  comment  or  application. 
When  I  had  finished,  it  was  luncheon  time. 
As  the  napkins  were  being  given  out,  one 
rollicksome,  usually  thoughtless  little  fellow 
exclaimed,  "  Oh,  I  do  wish  I  could  have  that 
pretty  red  and  blue  napkin  to  give  to  Bobby ! " 
"  You  can  have  it,"  said  I.  He  took  the  napkin 
and  spread  it  out  before  his  little  cousin,  who 
was  smaller  than  he.  "I  think,"  said  a  still 
younger  child,  *'  thafs  the  prettiest  napkin  in 
the  whole  lot."  "He  can  have  it,  oan'-t  he?" 
asked  little  David.  "  You  know  he's  so  little." 
Thus  quickly  had  the  spirit  of  the  Franciscan 
love  taken  possession  of  their  young  hearts. 
There  lies  an  almost  untold  wealth  of  resource 
in  the  legends  of  the  Koman  Catholic  saints, 
nearly  all  of  whom  were  canonized  for  their 
deeds  of  self-sacrifice  and  service  to  humanity. 
The  Protestant  church  has  robbed  herself  of 
much,  in  shutting  away  fi'om  her  children 
these  stories  of  pure,  sweet  lives,  unto  most  of 
whom  it  could  have  been  said,  "  Well  done^ 
thou  good  and  faithful  servant,  enter  thou  into 
the  joy  of  thy  Lord." 

The  "  love-force,"  as  another  has  called  it, 
is    woman's    greatest    instrument    of    power. 


88  The  Instinct  of  Love,  or 

Unmarred  children  implicitly  believe  that 
their  mother's  love  makes  everything  easy. 
I  have  in  my  memory  gallery  a  beautiful 
picture  illustrating  this  perfect  trust  of  the 
little  child  in  the  efficacy  of  his  mother's  love. 
Two  little  cousins  of  about  three  years  of  age 
are  playing  together  on  a  green  lawn,  suggest- 
ing to  the  beholder  white  kittens  in  their  free 
frolicsome  gambols.  One  suddenly  catches 
his  foot  in  some  unseen  obstacle  in  his  path 
and  falls  forward,  striking  his  head  against  the 
trunk  of  a  tree.  Instantly,  of  course,  there 
ensue  loud  cries  of  pain.  The  other  little  fel- 
low is  in  a  moment  by  his  side,  with  his  arm 
around  him,  and  pushes  him  with  all  his  might 
towards  his  own  mother,  saying  as  he  does  so, 
in  the  most  assuring,  coaxing  tones  possible, 
"  Run  to  my  mamma,  Dean,  run  to  my  mamma, 
she'll  kiss  it  and  make  it  all  well.  Please  run 
to  her,  quick!  "  Surely  perfect  love  in  this  case 
has  cast  out  all  fear.  Love  engenders  love. 
Can  not  this  great  God-gift  of  joyful  self-sac- 
rifice to  the  mother  devise  a  thousand  ways  by 
which  to  kindle  the  same  fire  in  her  child,  until 
the  Robert  Falconers  of  fiction  are  no  longer 
beautiful  dreams  but  living  realities?  "Ah," 
says  the  doubter,  "  what  if  I  ask  my  child  to 
do  something  for  me,  and  he  refuse,  or  begin 


The  Training  of  the  Affections.  89 

to  make  excuses,  or  ask  why  his  brother  or 
sister  can  not  do  it  as  well?  "  You  have  simply- 
mistaken  the  time  for  stretching  the  young 
soul's  wings.  Begin  the  training  when  the 
child  is  in  the  loving  mood,  and  you  will 
rarely  fail  to  get  the  desired  response.  Yet, 
if  need  be,  command  the  performance  of  the 
deed,  that  by  repeated  doing,  the  selfish  heart 
may  learn  the  joy  of  unselfishness,  and  thus 
enter  upon  True  living. 

"  Let  us  strive  to  follow  the  ideal  which  our 
Lord  Himself  has  given  to  us,  in  all  its  ful- 
ness in  all  its  grand  proportions.  Let  us  aim 
at  nothing  short  of  a  life  which  will  embrace 
in  it  all  the  glory  of  the  heavens,  as  well  as 
the  gladness  of  the  earth  ;  which  will  put 
'Thou,'  'Thine,'  'Thee,'  in  the  first  place, 
♦We,'   'Ours,'  'Us,' in  the  second." 


CHAPTER    V. 

THE   INSTINCT  OF  CONTINUITY,    OR  THE  TRAINING 

OF    THE    REASON. 

"What  is  it  that  gives  the  attraction  to  such 
rhymes  as,  "  This  is  the  house  that  Jack 
built?"  Is  it  not  that  each  step  in  this  nursery 
tragedy  is  seen  clearly  to  proceed  out  of  the 
previous  one  and  to  develop  into  the  succeeding 
one  ?  What  is  it  which  makes  the  child  ask  at 
the  end  of  a  story,  "AVhat  became  of  the  little 
dog  ?"  or,  "What  did  the  mamma  say  then?" 
Does  not  the  question  plainly  show  the  child's 
dislike  of  endings,  or  isolations  f  Why  do  all 
children  listen  with  delight  to  stories  of  when 
they  were  babies,  or,  better  still,  of  when 
mamma  was  a  little  girl,  or  papa  was  a  little 
boy?  Is  it  not  that  this  gives  to  them  the 
continuity  of  their  little  lives,  or  that  of  the 
parent's  larger  life  ?  Have  not  the  magic  words 
"  Once  upon  a  time,"  "A  long  time  ago,"  the 
same  fascination  for  the  very  reason  that  they 
show  him  a  connection  with  the  remote  past  ? 
How  a  boy's  face  lights  up  when  one  begins  to 
talk  with  him  about  what  he  is  going  to  do  when 
he  gets  to  be  a  man !  The  thought  links  him 
90 


The  Training  of  the  Reason.  91 

with  the  mysterious  future.  What  is  the 
attraction  which  the  steady,  never-stopping 
pendulum  of  the  clock  has  for  the  child?  It 
marks  the  continuity  of  time.  Have  you  never 
soothed  the  restless  fretting  of  a  baby  by  call- 
ing his  attention  to  running  water  or  falling 
sand?  This  is  the  continuity  of  motion. 
"  The  earliest  cradles  of  the  race  were  rocked 
in  rhyme  to  sleep,"  sings  the  poet.  It  is  the 
measured  accentuation  of  sound  in  melody  that 
has  such  charm  for  the  child;  all  simple 
rhythmical  measurement  of  music  is  a  delight 
to  him.  Without  doubt  this  is  the  secret 
charm  in  "Mother  Goose"  which  has  held 
enthralled  generations  of  little  listeners.  So 
keen  is  the  child's  enjoyment  of  continuity  in 
sound  that  he  will  take  delight  in  running  a 
stick  along  a  picket  fence,  forming  a  kind  of 
Chinese  music  in  which  his  young  soul  rejoices, 
though  older  and  more  tired  nerves  may  quiver 
thereat. 

I  remember  once  amusing  myself  and  a 
small  boy  by  drawing  a  picture  of  a  wagon  for 
him  on  a  fragment  of  paper.  He  was  interested 
and  for  a  short  time  satisfied  with  it;  then  he 
returned  with  the  request  that  a  horse  be 
drawn  in  front  of  the  wagon.  The  scrap  of 
paper  did  not  admit  of  the  drawing  of  a  horse 


92  The  Instinct  of  Continuity,  or 

in  proper  proportion  to  the  wagon,  so  I  care- 
lessly drew  the  two  hind  legs  and  rear  part  of 
the  animal,  and  handed  it  back  to  him  with 
the  remark,  "  We  can't  see  the  other  part  of 
your  horse;  this  will  do."  He  looked  at  it  for 
a  moment,  then  a  great  wave  of  disappointment 
swept  over  his  face  and  his  lips  quivered;  in  a 
moment  more  he  burst  into  tears.  I  was 
astonished,  and  in  the  thoughtless  impulse  of 
the  moment,  said,  "If  you  are  going  to  be  a 
naughty  boy  and  cry  I  will  not  play  with  you." 
This  was  before  my  kindergarten  days.  I 
know  now  that  the  fragmentary  picture  gave  a 
sense  of  incompleteness  to  the  sensitive  little 
brain,  which  was  akin  to  the  dissatisfaction  and 
unrest  which  come  to  us  oftentimes  when  days 
seem  dark  and  dreary,  and  we  cannot  see  the 
continuity  of  the  good  steadfastly  shining 
beyond  the  temporary  cloud  of  interrupted 
plans  or  disappointed  hopes.  All  these  and 
scores  of  like  incidents  are  but  indications  of 
the  child's  instinctive  desire  to  get  a  better 
comprehension  of  process  or  continuity. 

Let  us  pause  and  think  what  is  the  true 
significance  of  a  realization  of  continuity.  It 
is  one  of  the  central  truths  of  life;  a  compre- 
hension of  it  is  the  mark  of  the  philosophic 
mind,  of  having  attained  unto  that  rationality 


The  Training  of  the  Reason.  93 

which  brings  insight.  In  fact,  we  have  not 
reached  a  really  rational  view  of  anything 
until  we  see  that  all  things  are  connected,  that 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  isolation.  It  has 
been  well  said,  "Most of  the  world  is  asleep 
because  it  has  been  taught  facts  aloneo"  It 
has  learned  to  see  results  without  studying  the 
cause  of  these  results;  begin  to  show  the  living 
moving  process  by  which  these  results  have 
been  obtained,  and  you  begin  to  arouse  the 
sleeping  world.  The  three-fold  testimony  of 
nature,  of  history,  and  of  revelation  are  not 
wanting  here. 

Is  it  not  the  upheaval  in  primeval  ages  that 
has  formed  our  mountain  ranges,  which  in  their 
turn  determine  the  water  courses?  By  these 
pre-determined  water  courses  which  wash  down 
and  grind  up  the  fragments  of  rock,  is  not  the 
nature  and  productivity  of  the  soil  more  or  less 
determined  ?  Upon  the  richness  or  sterility  of 
the  soil  and  the  direction  of  the  rain-bearing 
winds,  does  not  the  nature  of  the  vegetation 
depend?  Even  the  climate,  that  other  great 
factor  in  the  physical  world,  depends  somewhat 
upon  those  primeval  walls  of  rock.  The  insect 
and  animal  life  which  any  locality  can  sustain, 
is  closely  connected  with  the  vegetation  and 
climate;  man's  occupation  or  industrial  activity 


94  The  Instinct  of  Continuiiy,  or 

shapes  itself  according  to  the  structure  of  the 
surrounding  country  and  the  forms  of  vegeta- 
ble and  animal  life  about  it;  the  influence  of 
those  occupations  is  clearly  seen  upon  the 
mental  bias  of  a  nation,  until  at  last  the  very 
government  of  a  people  can  be  traced  back  to 
the  geography  of  the  country.  In  a  thousand 
and  one  ways  nature  illustrates  this  great 
law  of  continuity.  The  mist  arises  from  the 
ocean,  ascends  to  the  clouds,  is  floated  across 
the  continent  by  the  wind,  comes  in  contact 
with  the  cold  mountain  peak  which  changes  it 
into  the  form  of  rain,  descends  into  rivulet  and 
stream,  and  is  emptied  by  them  back  into  the 
ocean.  The  trees  grow  centuries  old  and  die; 
their  majestic  forms  crumble  into  loam  which 
serves  to  enrich  the  soil  from  which  a  new 
growth  of  trees  draws  nourishment  Even  the 
blood  in  the  body  is  in  a  continual  process, 
from  heart  through  artery  and  vein  back  to 
heart  again.  Our  very  gestures  repeated 
become  attitudes,  attitudes  crystallize  into 
bearing,  and  bearing  helps  to  mould  character; 
for  may  not  one's  bearing  be  an  open  gate 
which  invites  all  mankind  to  come  in  and  sup 
with  us,  or  on  the  other  hand  may  it  not  be  the 
iron  portcullis  which  shuts  out  with  like  harsh- 
ness the  glorious  knight  who  brings  a  message 


The  Training  of  the  Reason.  95 

from  the  king,  or  the  trembling  peasant  who 
flees  to  us  for  help?  Does  not  this  joyous 
warmth  and  uniting  sympathy  on  the  one  hand, 
and  isolating  unconcern  of  manner  on  the 
other  hand,  have  much  to  do  in  their  reaction 
with  the  formation  of  character? 

We  are  all  familiar  with  the  principle  in 
natural  philosophy  known  as  "  the  indestruct- 
ibility of  matter."  We  know  that  the  accurate 
chemist  can  burn  a  piece  of  wood,  and  present 
us  in  smoke,  gas  and  ashes  every  atom's  weight 
of  the  wood;  we  know  that  in  the  processes  of 
nature  the  elements  of  the  earth  change  rela- 
tionship but  none  are  ever  really  lost.  We 
see  and  acknowledge  all  this  in  naiure,  but  we 
fail  to  realize  it  in  human  affairs.  It  is  because 
we  fail  to  see  continuity  that  we  fail  to  compre- 
hend life.  God  is  eternal,  everlasting,  ever 
present ;  therefore  all  His  creation  must  reflect 
Him — must  he  without  isolations. 

In  our  modern  civilization  is  every  element 
of  good  for  which  Persian  or  Greek  or  Roman 
ever  fought.  The  student  of  history  with  this 
thought  of  continuity  in  his  mind,  sees  Provi- 
dence bringing  order  out  of  chaos;  sees  the 
why  and  the  wherefore  of  the  terrible  struggles 
fchrougli  which  the  race  has  had  to  pass.  The 
enormous  sacrifice  which  any  generation  may 


96  The  InsUncf  of  ContinuUy,  or 

be  called  upon  to  make  becomes  a  trifle  when 
the  result  of  that  slaughter  and  sacrifice  is  seen 
in  the  nest  generation.  What  was  the  battle 
of  Marathon,  compared  to  the  fact  that  upon 
that  battle-field  the  world  gained  the  first 
dawn  of  the  gigantic  truth  that  all  men  are 
free  ?  What  was  the  struggle  of  the  Dutch 
during  their  terrible  thirty  years  war,  compared 
with  the  benefit  which  mankind  has  since 
received  from  the  firm  establishment  of  the 
fact  that  each  soul  shall  be  free  to  worship 
God  according  to  the  dictates  of  his  own  con- 
science? What  were  the  sufferings  of  our 
Puritan  forefathers,  compared  to  the  protection 
which  a  free  government  affords  us,  their 
descendants,  a  protection  bought  by  the  very 
courage  and  fortitude  which  their  hard  lot 
engendered  ?  Continuity  is  the  brightest  lamp 
of  thought  ;  by  its  light  we  see  in  Cfesar's 
grasp  of  the  Roman  Empire  the  beginning  of 
modern  civilization  ;  in  the  Crusades,  we  find 
the  necessary  preparation  of  the  then  narrowly 
prejudiced  nations  for  the  future  settlement  of 
America ;  by  those  fanatical  wars  were  broken 
down  the  fear  of  unknown  countries,  the  small 
provincial  ideas  of  greatness,  and  the  spirit  of 
adventure  was  aroused.  So,  too,  the  true  stu- 
dent of  history  traces  back  the  French  Revo- 


The  Training  of  the  Reason.  97 

lution  far  beyond  the  weak,  vain  rule  of  the 
Louis  to  the  desperate,  profligate  days  of  the 
Popes,  Julius  11.  and  Leo  X.,  which  caused 
the  mighty  soul  of  Michel  Angelo  to  pour 
itself  out  in  pictures  more  terrible  and  sub- 
lime than  any  of  which  art  had  ever  dreamed. 
Then  began  the  loosening  of  the  hold  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  upon  the  hearts  of  her 
children,  which  finally  resulted  in  the  loss  of 
respect  and  reverence  for  everything  that  was 
high  or  holy,  for  all  forms  of  authority,  in  the 
days  of  Murat  and  Robespierre. 

In  the  affairs  of  to-day  as  well  as  in  those  of 
past  times  we  see  this  great  law  of  continuity 
explaining  and  making  clear  the  vexing  prob- 
lems of  the  hour.  By  its  magic  touch,  as  by 
the  enchanted  cloak  of  old,  things  assume  their 
right  degree  of  importance.  As  for  example, 
in  the  rapid  growth  and  advancement  of  the 
railroads  of  our  times  can  be  plainly  foreseen 
the  downfall  of  European  aristocracy;  by 
means  of  these  the  arable  lands  of  our  great 
Northwest,  our  prairie  lands,  are  becoming  the 
granaries  of  the  world,  are  helping  to  send 
food  to  the  heretofore  dependent  vassals  of  the 
old  world,  whose  bread  had  come  to  them  only 
by  the  consent  of  the  lords  of  the  land. 

Great  as  is  the  insight  that  continuity  gives 
7 


98  The  Instinct  of  Continuity,  or 

to  the  student  of  science  or  of  history,  greatei 
still  is  its  aid  to  the  student  of  morals.  I  once 
had  a  man  of  the  world  tell  me  that  for  the  life 
of  him  he  could  not  with  any  comfort  go  out 
fishing  or  upon  any  pleasure  expedition  on 
Sunday,  because  during  his  childhood  his 
mother  had  so  constantly  and  conscientiously 
put  aside  all  secular  occupations  on  that  day. 
"  Train  up  a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go," 
says  the  Bible,  the  best  book  on  pedagogics 
ever  written,  "  and  when  he  is  old  he  will  not 
depart  from  it ;"  when  seeming  departure  from 
the  standards  acquired  in  early  childhood 
comes,  it  can  almost  always  be  traced  to  incon- 
sistencies in  the  training.  So,  too,  apparently 
sudden  defalcations  usually  bring  to  light  a 
train  of  previous  actions  which  show  to  the 
observing  eyes  that  the  rottenness  had  been  of 
long  though  hidden  growth. 

Froebel  considered  this  such  an  important 
part  of  education,  that  he  would  have  the 
mother  begin  to  point  it  out  to  her  child  in  such 
trifling  matters  as  that  of  showing  him  in  song 
or  play  that  the  bread  and  milk  which  have 
disappeared  after  his  supper  is  over  are  yet 
existing  in  the  form  of  fresh  blood  in  him, 
serving  to  make  his  cheeks  "  red  and  white  like 


The  Training  of  the  Reason-  99 

rose  and  cream."      In  the  motto  to  the  mother 
in  this  little  song  of  "All's  Gone,"  he  says: 

"  The  child,  disturbed,  thinlis  all  is  gone, 
"When  the  empty  plate  and  cup  he  sees; 
Thou  canst  a  wiser  thought  make  known 
And  easily  his  fancy  please, 
Since  what  has  vanished  from  us  hers 
Exists  yet  in  another  sphere. 
What  from  the  outer  form  is  flown, 
Will  in  another  form  be  known." 

The  child  sees  only  the  empty  bowl ; — ending, 
loss,  disconnection,  isolation,  hence  discord. 
The  mother  knows  that  the  bread  and  milk  are 
changed  into  the  higher  form  of  blood  and 
muscle  ;  instead  of  ending,  she  sees  continua- 
tion ;  instead  of  loss,  gain ;  instead  of  discord, 
perfect  harmony. 

Do  we,  when  we  look  at  the  more  complex 
problem  of  life,  see  with  the  eyes  of  the  child 
or  the  mother  ?  Do  we  see  that  all  things  work 
together  for  good?  It  is  into  such  a  grand 
view  of  life  that  the  little  child  can  be  led  as 
naturally  and  as  healthfully  as  into  the  realiza- 
tion that  he  breathes  or  that  he  has  brothers 
and  sisters.  In  fact,  that  only  is  the  right 
education  which  makes  all  learning  serve  as  an 
instrument  with  which  to  train  the  child  to  see 
m  an  effect  the  cause ;  in  other  words,  to  become 
a  rational  being,   to  whom  the  great  truths  of 


100  The  Instinct  of  Continuity,  or 

life  have  been  shown.  The  question  is,  how 
shall  we  deal  with  the  child  so  that  he  shall 
first  feel  this  connection,  then  know  it,  then 
live  it  ?  It  is  with  this  logical  training  in 
view,  that  the  Kindergarten  schools  of  sewing, 
weaving,  and  the  like,  are  so  arranged  that 
one  design  grows  out  of  another,  though  of 
course  due  attention  is  paid  to  the  free,  spon- 
taneous growth  of  the  child's  own  ideas.  "  See 
into  what  other  pretty  form  you  can  change  this 
one,"  says  the  teacher,  or  by  some  like  remark 
suggesting  orderly  transformation  rather  than 
disconnected  rearrangement,  yet  giving  full 
scope  to  the  child's  individuality.  The  chairs, 
beds,  tables,  etc.,  built  of  the  blocks,  tablets, 
and  sticks,  are  usually  developed  one  from 
another,  much  to  the  delight  of  the  children, 
thus  giving  an  almost  imperceptible  tendency 
to  see  transformation  rather  than  mere  change. 
That  this  is  the  effect  of  logical  play  and  work 
in  any  child  who  has  gone  through  a  thorough 
kindergarten,  will  be  conceded  by  any  observer. 
In  the  kindergarten  of  a  friend  of  mine  a 
play  with  the  blocks  was  going  on,  in  which 
one  form  was  thus  changed  into  another  by 
each  move  of  the  blocks.  After  several  such 
changes  had  been  made  at  the  suggestion  of 
the  teacher,  one  little  fellow  looked  up  with  the 


The  Training  of  the  Reason.  101 

most  astonished  and  delighted  expression  of 
face,  and  exclaimed;  "Well,  I  declare!  It's 
just  too  funny  to  see  how  one  thing  busts 
into  another  without  breaking  up."  Madam 
Marenholtz  von  Bulow,  the  valued  friend  and 
interpreter  of  Froebel,  in  speaking  of  this  logi- 
cal play,  says:  "  He  (the  child  in  the  kinder- 
garten) is  instructed  in  an  easy  manner  how  to 
invent  new  forms  at  pleasure  in  endless  variety 
by  application  of  Froebel's  law  of  formation. 
The  forms  and  figures  thus  brought  out,  easily 
proceed  step  by  step  to  the  most  complex,  only 
appearing  difficult  and  beyond  the  child's  power 
when  we  do  not  know  how  they  proceeded  from 
each  other.  And  again  :  "  The  child  before 
whose  eyes  sensible  objects  are  brought  in  the 
correct  order  of  the  parts  to  the  whole,  and  in 
the  logicfd  connection  of  things,  will,  when 
reflected  power  is  developed,  also  perceive  this 
order  and  logical  connection  clearly  and  defin- 
itely in  the  intellectual  world." 

In  our  legendary  stories  of  heroes,  we  usually 
begin  to  tell  of  them  when  they  were  little 
boys,  letting  the  children  see  the  gradual 
growth  in  character.  My  own  children  are 
never  tired  of  listening  to  such  stories  as  that 
of  the  little  girl  who  wanted  to  make  some 
bread   all    by  herself,  so  she  was  referred  by 


102  The  Instinct  of  Continuity,  or 

mamma  to  the  cook,  by  the  cook  to  the  grocer 
for  flour,  by  the  grocer  to  the  miller,  by  the 
miller  to  the  farmer  for  wheat,  by  the  farmer 
to  the  ground,  by  the  earth  to  the  sunshine 
and  showers,  and  by  these  to  the  Heavenly 
Father,  who  is  back  of  all  and  in  all.  This 
little  story  embodies  much  of  the  real  signifi- 
cance and  the  comprehension  of  continuity. 
It  reveals  the  dependence  of  the  individual 
upon  the  rest  of  mankind,  and  also  man's 
dependence  upon  nature,  and  leads  up  to  a 
realization  of  the  dependence  of  all  upon  the 
Creator,  which  is  the  grand  central  truth  of 
religion. 

The  earnest  mother  can  give  a  like  logical 
training  in  the  home.  Tour  child  has  bumpad 
his  head ;  let  him  see  that  it  was  not  the  fault  of 
the  table  but  of  himself,  because  he  did  not 
know  where  he  was  going;  thus  by  learning 
the  cause,  he  learns  to  avoid  further  bumps. 
He  comes  to  you  complaining  of  the  stomach- 
ache; sympathize  with  him,  if  need  be,  but  ask 
at  the  same  time,  "What  has  my  child  been  eat- 
ing which  has  made  his  stomach  ache?  "  One 
little  fellow  who  had  been  trained,  not  only  to 
trace  back  physical  aches,  but  irritated  moods, 
to  disordered  stomachs,  was  with  me  at  a  hotel 
for  a  few  days.     He  was  much  pleased  by  the 


The  Training  of  the  Reason.  103 

new  experience  of  riding  up  and  down  in  the 
elevator.  One  day  he  surprised  me  by  saying 
"  I  guess  that  elevator  man  has  got  all  over  his 
stomach-ache."  "What!"  I  exclaimed.  He 
gravely  repeated  his  remark,  and  then  added  by 
way  of  explanation,  '•  He  was  awful  cross  yes- 
terday, and  told  me  to  keep  out  of  the  elevator, 
and  to-day  he  offered  to  sharpen  my  pencil  for 
me,  and  asked  me  to  come  and  ride  with  him." 
Ah  me,  if  dear  old  Carlyle  could  only  have  had 
that  insight  and  have  taken  care  of  his  diet 
while  he  was  exposing  and  trying  to  correct  the 
shams  of  society! 

Two  little  girls  in  my  kindergarten  were 
once  telling  of  a  quarrel  they  had  had  the 
afternoon  before  with  a  playmate.  One  said: 
"  When  I  got  home,  I  told  my  mamma,  and  she 
said  she  wouldn't  play  Avith  little  girls  who 
quarreled  so,  if  she  were  in  my  place."  Then 
turning  to  her  companion  she  added,  byway  of 
confirmation  of  the  justice  of  the  decision,  "  So 
did  your  mamma,  didn't  she,  Josephine?" 
"  No,"  answered  Josephine,  in  a  low  tone  and 
coloring  slightly.  "  My  mamma  said  if  I  had 
been  pleasant  and  unselfish  we  need  not  have 
quarreled."  The  first  mother  merely  defended 
her  child,  laying  the  blame  of  the  common 
fault  elsewhere.     The  second  mother  carefully 


104  The  Instinct  of  Continuity,  or 

pointed  out  to  lier  child  the  cause  of  the  quar- 
rel, not  of  that  quarrel  only  but  of  all  quarrels. 
One  of  the  great  benefits  of  logical  training  is 
that  each  new  glimpse  into  cause  and  effect 
applies  to  all  after  like  experiences. 

We  will  have  to  give  a  separate  chapter  to 
logical  punishments,  so  misunderstood  is  the 
subject,  so  beneficial  the  right  line  of  conduct 
in  the  matter.  The  loving  mother  whose 
instinct  has  once  been  aroused  into  insight, 
will  find  innumerable  ways  by  which  to  teach 
her  child  to  see  connection  of  one  thing  with 
another,  and  the  child's  desire  for  such  connect- 
ed views  of  things  will  suggest  many  more. 
In  the  family  life,  the  loving  anticipation  of 
how  pleased  papa  will  be  when  some  little  piece 
of  work  is  done,  the  planning  beforehand  for 
some  excursion  to  the  country,  or  the  celebra- 
tion of  some  birthday,  leads  the  child  to  trace 
out  the  origin  of  unselfish  happiness,  and  is 
worth  ten-fold  the  joy  which  is  obtained  from 
impulse  alone.  Not  that  the  spontaneous  joy 
of  a  child  is  ever  to  be  checked,  only  it  can  be 
made  reasonable,  and  the  child  gradually 
learns  to  subordinate  the  gratification  of  the 
moment  to  a  better  though  more  distant  enjoy- 
ment ;  a  lesson  much  needed  by  the  majority  of 
mankind.     In  the  spending   of  money,    some 


The  Training  of  the  Reason.  105 

object  can  be  placed  before  the  child  which 
will  have  sufficient  attraction  for  him  to  induce 
him  to  save  his  pennies  until  enough  are 
acquired  to  purchase  the  desired  article,  rather 
than  that  habit,  thoughtlessly  engendered  in 
most  American  homes,  of  expecting  a  child  to 
spend  each  cent,  bestowed  or  earned,  as  soon  as 
he  gets  it.  It  is  this  wretched  spend- 
thrift propensity  which  shackles  half  the  world, 
and  makes  men  slaves  to  their  circumstances 
rather  than  masters  over  them. 

Even  in  the  selection  of  reading  matter  for 
children,  this  development  of  the  power  to 
reason  can  be  furthered.  Such  books  as  "Seven 
Little  Sisters"  lead  the  young  mind  to  see  the 
unity  of  the  race,  and  such  books  as  "Ten  Little 
Boys  on  the  Koad  from  Long  Ago  until  Now" 
lead  him  to  trace  in  history  the  connection  of 
the  civilization  of  the  world. 

In  science  work  with  the  children  a  connec- 
tion can  be  made  between  the  animal  kingdom 
and  the  mineral  kingdom,  by  following  the 
study  of  mollusks  with  that  of  shell  rock,  or 
other  fossiliferous  rock;  the  mineral  kingdom 
can  be  connected  with  the  vegetable  kingdom 
through  mixing  the  clay  and  sand  with  the 
vegetable  loam,  as  together  they  form  the  food 
of  the  plant-world  which  gives  to  man  and  the 


106  Tlie  Instinct  of  Continuity,  or 

lower  animals  nourishment.  It  is  helpful  to 
call  the  child's  attention  to  such  facts  as  these, 
that  birds  which  live  upon  the  smaller  inhabi- 
tants of  the  water  are  so  constructed  that  they 
can  wade  or  swim  ;  that  almost  all  weak  crea- 
tures have  the  power  of  Heeing  rapidly,  and  the 
added  protection  of  having  the  color  of  their 
usual  environment,  thus  showing  design,  hence 
connection  in  creation.  All  sympathy  with  the 
varying  phases  of  the  weather  aids  the  child. 
The  good  rain  is  giving  the  flowers  and  grasses 
a  drink,  although  it  is  keeping  us  indoors;  the 
hot  sun  is  making  the  corn  grow  and  the  fruits 
ripen,  although  it  is  uncomfortable  for  us ;  the 
soft  snow  and  even  the  sharp  frost  are  covering 
up  the  roots  of  trees  and  plants,  and  putting 
them  to  sleep  for  a  new  growth  in  the  spring. 
Almost  any  child,  no  matter  how  willful,  can  be 
trained  into  logical  rationality,  if  little  by  little, 
in  a  bright,  cheery  way,  he  is  taught  to  look 
before  and  after. 

In  a  visit  to  a  friend  not  long  ago,  I  had  full 
opportunity  to  demonstrate  how  quickly  a  child 
responds  to  reason  if  the  reason  is  simply 
enough  put.  Her  little  son,  a  beautiful  boy 
of  five,  refused  to  eat  any  meat  for  breakfast. 
'*  Please  eat  a  little,  Harvey,"  said  the  mother. 
'^  No,"  responded  the  child.     "  Please  do,  for 


The  Training  of  the  Reason.  107 

mamma's  sake."  "  No,  I  don't  want  any," 
almost  petulantly  replied  the  child.  The  mother 
looked  baffled  and  distressed.  "  Harvey,"  said 
I,  "  do  you  know  what  the  little  stomach  does 
when  it  gets  hold  of  some  nice  meat?"  "No," 
said  the  child,  interested.  "  Your  little  stom- 
ach, you  know,"  continued  I,  "  has  to  change 
the  food  you  send  down  to  it  into  blood  and 
bone  and  muscle,  so  when  it  gets  sugar  and 
cookies  and  things  that  taste  nice  to  you 
but  do  not  help  it  to  make  strength,  it  twists 
and  turns  them,  and  does  the  best  it  can  with 
them,  but  it  cannot  make  very  good  blood  with 
them.  But  when  you  send  it  good  strong  meat, 
it  goes  to  work  and  grinds  it  up  and  makes  it 
into  fine,  rich  blood,  which  is  sent  out  inta 
your  arms  and  legs  and  makes  strong  muscles, 
so  that  you  can  climb  trees  and  run  fast  and  do 
all  sorts  of  things  without  getting  tired."  I 
talked  in  an  animated  fashion  as  if  these  things 
were  the  most  desirable  attainments  in  all  life, 
Harvey  gradually  drew  his  plate  toward  him 
and  began  a  vigorous  attack  upon  the  rejected 
meat. 

The  tracing  of  faults  in  your  children  back 
to  the  causes  of  them,  helps  much  in  rooting 
them  out.  Everyone  recognizes  evil  when  it 
culminates  in  some   forbidden  deed,   but   the 


108  The  Instinct  of  ContinuUy,  or 

wise  motlier  perceives  that  the  act  is  but  the 
result  of  a  chain  of  previous  evils.  Let  a  child 
steal  and  you  are  horrified,  but  you  do  not  per- 
ceive that  this  is  only  a  climax;  it  began  with 
secretiveness,  then  followed  meddling  with 
what  belonged  to  another,  then  perhaps  the 
covetous  thought  or  the  lack  of  some  sort  of 
ownership,  finally  ending  in  thievery — at  any 
stage  it  could  have  been  checked  more  easily 
than  at  the  last.  Too  many  mothers  and 
teachers  fail  in  the  training  of  children  because 
they  do  not  recognize  the  law  of  continuity.  I 
use  the  two  words  mother  and  teacher  almost 
as  if  they  were  synonymous.  They  are  as  far 
as  the  training  of  the  little  child  is  concerned? 
The  true  mother  is  a  teacher  whether  she  is 
conscious  of  it  or  not,  and  the  true  teacher  uses 
the  innate  mother  element,  that  which  broods 
over  the  child  and  warms  it  into  life  as  much 
as  she  does  her  acquired  knowledge.  The  full 
realization  of  the  value  of  the  first  years  of  a 
child  comes  only  when  we  perceive  the  con- 
tinuity of  character  building.  Not  alone  is  the 
little  child  affected  by  having  the  connection  of 
things  shown  to  him,  but  unthinking  adults, 
those  children  of  a  larger  growth,  too,  feel 
the  effects. 

The  young  man  just  starting  upon  his  busi- 


The  Training  of  the  Reason.  109 

ness  career  sees  the  man  of  business  who  has 
accumulated  capital  and  influence,  and  he  is 
stirred  with  desire,  or  perchance  with  envy, 
and  wishes  in  a  vague  way  that  he  could  be  as 
*'  lucky."  Show  him  the  process  by  which  the 
man  made  his  fortune ;  if  it  be  honestly  won, 
how  he  denied  himself  luxuries  in  his  early 
career,  how  he  was  prompt  in  meeting  every 
engagement,  reliable  in  every  transaction, 
polite,  courteous,  and  good-natured,  though 
firm  and  unhesitating,  and  if  you  make  the 
young  aspirant  after  fortune  see  this  you 
arouse  him  to  do  likewise,  and  earning  a 
fortune  becomes  a  real  possible  thing,  not  a 
gift  of  fate.  Or  if  the  fortune  has  not  been 
accumulated  by  the  legitimate  process  of 
business,  but  by  wild  and  reckless  speculation, 
the  curse  of  our  Nation,  show  him  the  inevit- 
able process;  that  as  the  bank  account  unjustly 
swells,  so  surely  does  the  conscience  and 
honor  of  the  man  shrink,  until  at  last  money 
has  taken  the  place  of  manhood,  and  the 
younger  man's  desire  for  the  ill-gotten  gains 
changes  into  commiseration  of  the  poor  deluded 
soul  which  has  robbed  Uself  far  more  than  it 
has  robbed  the  world. 

Or  again,  the  young  student,    who  discovers 
what     books     the     philosopher     has  read  or 


110  TJie  Instinct  of  Continuity,  or 

would  recommend  for  reading,  feels  tliat  he  has 
obtained  possession  of  a  ladder  by  which  he 
too  may  climb  to  the  dizzy  height  of  scholar- 
ship attained;  it  becomes  a  stimulus  to  his 
flagging  energies.  It  is  this  realization  of 
inevitable  process  in  all  success  that  does  away 
with  that  fatal  paralysis  of  effort,  a  belief  in 
good  or  bad  luck,  with  which  many  a  young 
man  satisfies  his  conscience  or  smothers  his 
aspirations.  Let  him  fi-om  childhood  be  led 
to  realize  that  there  is  no  luck  about  it,  but  that 
each  man  makes  or  mars  his  own  fortune,  and 
if  there  remains  a  spark  of  the  ideal  in  him  it 
kindles  into  flame.  Many  of  the  questionings 
of  the  human  heart  as  to  the  justice  of  Divine 
dealings  can  be  satisfied  by  the  light  of  this 
law. 

"  I  sent  my  Soul  through  the  invisible, 
Some  letters  of  the  after-life  to  spell ; 
And  by  ami  by  my  Soul  returned  to  me, 
And  answered,  '  I  myself  am  Heaven  or  Hell '." 

Hell  thus  becomes  "  God's  highest  tribute  to 
man's  freedom." 

In  a  thousand  ways  we  can  test  the  import- 
ance or  non-importance  of  any  line  of  progress. 
Out  of  what  has  it  grown  ?  Into  what  is  it 
leading?  All  events  in  time  are  links  in  a 
chain.        The   human   race    is    one  continued 


The  Training  of  the  Reason.  Ill 

whole,  each,  child  is  the  iieir  of  generations 
unnumbered.  ''  Hereditary  rank,"  says  Wash- 
ington Irving,  "  may  be  a  snare  and  a  delusion, 
but  hereditary  virtue  is  a  patent  of  innate 
uobility  which  far  outshines  the  blazonry  of 
heraldry."  In  each  of  our  own  lives  is  to  be 
seen  at  work  this  great  law.  "We  are  to-day 
what  we  are  because  our  past  has  been  what  it 
was;  what  we  will  be  in  the  future  depends 
upon  what  we  now  are."  Nor  is  this  all.  We 
are  now,  by  our  voluntary  choosing  of  this  or 
that  line  of  conduct,  forming  character  and 
creating  spiritual  tendencies  which  shall  be 
transmitted  to  our  descendants;  thus  we  are 
linked  not  alone  with  the  past,  but  with  the 
future.  Is  not  this  thought  an  inspiring  one 
to  every  mother?  By  every  weakness  which 
she  helps  her  child  to  overcome,  by  every 
inspiration  which  she  fans  into  flame,  is  she 
upbuilding  not  only  her  child's  character,  but 
is  benefiting  all  after  generations.  AVhat 
confidence  it  gives  her,  too,  as  to  her  child's 
future.  He  musjt^o  out  into  the  world  and 
fight  his  battles  alone ;  but  she  can  arm  him 
with  the  armor  of  good  habits,  place  upon  his 
head  the  helmet  of  rational  self-determination, 
put  into  his  hand  the  sword  of  aspiration,  and 
above  all,  give  to  him  the  shield  of  _faith  and 


112  The  Instinct  of  Continuity. 

reverence,  so  that  he  goes  forth  ready  to  defy 
the  demons  of  appetite  within  and  the  devils 
of  temptation  without.  She  need  not  fear  to 
send  her  son  forth,  or  tremble  for  her 
daughter's  happiness — they  have  begun  aright 
and  the  law  of  continuity  will  keep  them  aright, 
unless  some  mighty  force  hurl  them  for  a 
moment  from  the  path  of  rectitude,  and  even 
then  the  reaction  will  swing  them  back  into 
the  accustomed  path. 

Is  more  evidence  needed  to  impress  upon  the 
mother's  heart  the  importance  of  training  her 
child  to  feel  and  see  continuity  in  all  things 
around  him — in  all  he  does  ? 


CHAPTER    VI. 

THE     INSTINCT     OF     JUSTICE,      OR     RIGHT      AND 
WRONG    PUNISHMENTS. 

One  morning  last  year,  I  went  over  to  one  of 
our  kindergartens  located  in  a  sad  part  of  the 
city,  only  a  few  blocks  away  from  the  residence 
portion  where  wealth  and  culture  abound.  It 
was  composed  of  the  neglected  children  of  the 
dissipated  and  rather  dissolute  poor.  We  had 
recently  put  a  young  girl  in  charge  of  them, 
and  I  was  anxious  to  see  how  she  was  getting 
on.  To  the  practiced  eye  of  a  trained  kinder- 
gartner,  the  handwork  of  each  child  tells  his 
mental  and  moral  condition.  The  children  at 
the  table  where  the  young  director  was  seated 
were  at  work  on  second  gift  beads,  stringing 
cubes  and  balls  by  twos.  All  seemed  to  be  inter- 
ested and  busy  at  their  little  task  except  one 
child,  whose  string  showed  no  system,  definite- 
ness,  or  harmony ;  orange,  green,  purple,  yellow, 
balls,  cubes,  and  cylinders,  were  strung  at  ran- 
dom. The  jarring  inharmony  in  color  and  the 
disorder  in  form  showed  the  discord  within. 
On  the  cheeks  of  the  young  director  were  two 
bright  spots  of  color,  though  she  appeared 
8  H3 


114  The  Instinct  of  Justice,  or 

calm  and  quiet.  When  the  work-time  had 
ended,  she  asked  the  children  if  they  would  not 
like  to  have  their  beads  hung  up  to  help  make 
the  room  pretty  for  the  other  children.  String 
after  string  was  taken  up,  and  the  delighted 
little  workers  watched  her  wind  them  around 
the  gas-fixtures.  At  length  she  came  to  the 
disordered  string  before  mentioned.  "  Ah," 
said  she  quietly,  "  I  am  sorry  Nellie's  string 
is  not  nice  enough  to  hang  up.  She  will  have 
to  wait  until  she  can  learn  to  string  her  beads 
in  some  pretty  fashion  before  we  can  hang  them 
up  for  her."  Instantly  the  child  threw  the 
string  of  beads  petulantly  upon  the  table,  and 
the  look  of  sullen  defiance  deepened  in  her  face. 
The  young  teacher  walked  to  the  piano  and 
struck  the  chords  which  were  a  signal  for  all 
to  rise  from  their  seats.  All  arose  but  Nellie. 
The  second  chord  called  them  into  position, 
and  to  the  measured  time  of  the  music  they 
marched  forward  and  formed  in  a  line  upon  the 
play-circle.  The  kindergartner  then  went  over 
to  the  children,  saying  as  she  passed  the  chair 
of  the  obstinate  Nellie,  "  Are  you  not  coming 
to  join  with  us  in  the  Good-bye  song  ?  "  "  No," 
exclaimed  the  child  passionately,  "  I  shan't 
come.  If  you  break  every  bone  in  my  body,  I 
won't   stir   from  this  spot,"   and  the  look  of 


Right  and  Wrong  Punishments.       115 

sullenness  deepened  into  an  almost  fiendish  ex- 
pression. The  color  increased  in  the  face  of 
the  young  kindergartner,  but  her  voice  was  as 
clear  and  as  smooth  as  ever  as  she  replied,  "  I 
do  not  intend  to  hurt  you,  Nellie.  When  you 
feel  like  doing  what  is  right,  you  may  come 
and  tell  me."  Then  the  Good-bye  song  was 
sung  and  the  good-bye  shake  of  the  hand  was 
given  to  each  child,  and  all  were  dismissed  to 
their  homes.  Not  another  word  was  said,  but 
the  young  teacher  sat  down  at  a  table  and  began 
straightening  out  the  mats  and  piling  up  the 
work,  preparatory  to  putting  it  away.  Her  face 
was  calm  and  serene,  and  save  for  the  telltale 
color  of  the  cheeks  one  could  detect  no  excite- 
ment or  annoyance  on  her  part.  The  tick  of 
the  clock  was  the  only  sound  heard  in  the 
room.  In  a  few  moments  the  child  gave  an 
uneasy  jerk  of  her  chair.  "  Are  you  ready, 
Nellie?"  asked  the  teacher,  without  looking 
up.  "  No,"  answered  the  child  emphatically. 
The  girl  went  on  with  her  work.  After  a  time — 
I  think  not  more  than  ten  minutes — the  child, 
feeling  the  isolation  of  her  condition,  and 
seeing  that  she  would  gain  nothing  by  continued 
obstinacy,  arose  hesitatingly  from  her  chair  and 
sidled,  in  a  half-indignant,  half-sullen  sort  of  a 
way,  up  to  the  kindergartner.     Although  the 


116  TJie  Instinct  of  Justice,  or 

child's  dress  was  greasy  and  torn,  the  young 
girl  put  her  arm  around  her  and  drew  her 
close  to  her,  saying  gently,  "  Well,  Nellie,  are 
we  going  to  be  friends  ?  "  Nellie  seemed  ready 
to  burst  into  tears,  and  put  her  hand  tremb- 
lingly upon  the  teacher's  shoulder.  Nothing 
was  said  in  the  way  of  reproof.  After  a  minute 
the  kindergartner  said  in  a  cheerful  tone,  "  Do 
you  think  we  can  start  all  new  to-morrow  morn- 
ins:,  Nellie?  "  and  the  child  nodded  her  assent. 
I  have  told  this  story  simply  to  show  what 
self-control  can  be  obtained  in  such  trying 
moments,  through  the  insight  which  comes 
from  a  knowledge  of  the  true  office  of  punish- 
ment. To  the  misapprehension  of  the  aim  of 
punishment  is  due  much  of  the  misgovernment 
of  children.  Until  a  man  has  become  a  law 
unto  himself,  he  is  of  no  great  value  to  the  rest 
of  the  world;  and  punishments,  rightly  consid- 
ered, are  not  merely  an  atonement  for  offences 
committed,  but  they  show  the  nature  of  the 
offence,  and  help  the  individual  to  build  up  the 
law  within  and  thereby  to  avoid  repeating  the 
misdeed.  The  child  must  be  led  from  the 
unconscious  to  the  conscious  choosing  of  such 
lines  of  conduct  as  he  is  to  pursue.  How  can 
he  thus  choose  unless  he  knows  these  lines  of 
conduct  definitely,  and  thus   can   voluntarily 


Bight  and  Wrong  Punishments.       117 

decide  which  he  will  adopt?  The  deed  is  best 
known  through  its  consequences.  '"  By  their 
fruits  ye  shall  know  them,"  says  the  Bible. 
Therefore  we  rob  our  children  of  one  of  the 
greatest  aids  to  self-government  and  self-con- 
trol, when  by  any  means  whatsoever  we  free 
them  from  the  consequences  of  their  own  wrong- 
doing. That  the  child  should  early  learn  that 
"  the  way  of  the  transgressor  is  hard,"  is  an 
important  part  of  his  education.  Could  the 
souls  just  entering  upon  a  career  of  dissipation, 
dissoluteness,  or  other  form  of  vice,  clearly  see 
the  end  from  the  beginning,  surely  most  of 
them  would  be  deterred  from  pursuing  the  path 
of  sin.  But  the  fatal  thought,  "  Somehow  Fll 
escape,"  blinds  many  who  have  not  learned  the 
great  law  of  continuity,  who  do  not  realize  that 
"he  Avho  sows  the  wind  must  reap  the  whirl- 
wind." As  the  germ  of  the  plant  can  be  seen 
in  the  tiny  seed,  as  the  germ  of  the  future  man 
is  found  in  the  little  child,  so  too  can  the  germ 
of  the  inevitable  consequences  be  perceived  in 
the  deed.  Thus  we  recognize  the  value  of 
training  the  child  by  means  of  retrihidive  pun- 
ishment rather  than  by  the  arhitrarjj  punish- 
ment too  often  used  with  children.  The  former 
appeals  to  the  cliild's  inl)orn  instinct  of  justice. 
If  he  is  led  to  feel  that  the  inconvenience,  dis- 


118  The  Instinct  of  Justice,  or 

comfort,  pain,  or  disgrace,  is  merely  the  natural 
consequence  of  his  deed,  as  a  rule  he  accepts  it 
without  rebellion  or  a  revengeful  thought.  It 
is  in  this  way  that  Nature  teaches  her  laws  to 
each  child.  The  little  one  puts  his  hand  upon 
the  hot  stove;  no  whirlwind  from  without 
rushes  in  and  pushes  the  hand  away  from  the 
stove,  then  with  loud  and  vengeful  blasts  scolds 
him  for  his  heedlessness  or  wroncj  doinrj.  He 
simply  is  burned — the  natural  consequence  of 
his  own  deed;  and  the  fire  quietly  glows  on, 
regardless  of  the  pain  which  he  is  suffering.  If 
again  he  transgresses  the  law,  again  he  is  burned 
as  quietly  as  before,  with  no  expostulation, 
threat,  or  warning.  He  quickly  learns  the  lesson 
and  avoids  the  fire  thereafter,  bearing  no  grudge 
against  it.  This  is  always  Nature's  method; 
the  deed  brings  its  own  result,  and  nowhere  is 
arbitrary  unconnected  punishment  inflicted. 

In  history,  we  find  this  same  law  most  effect- 
ually at  work.  The  nations  which  violate  the 
laws  of  progress  and  growth,  and  of  interna- 
tional kindliness  of  feeling,  suffer  the  conse- 
quences in  the  reaction  upon  themselves. 
Herodotus  shows  us  that  the  Persian  empire 
conquered  and  tried  to  crush  the  barbarians 
by  whom  it  was  surrounded,  but  in  the  end  it 
was   crushed  by  these   same   brutally-treated 


Bight  and  Wrong  Punishments.       119 

provinces.     The  Greeks  colonized  and  civilized 
their  border-lands,  and  in  turn  learned  many 
useful    things    from    them.     The  downfall   of 
every  great  empire  can  be  traced  to  its  viola- 
tion of  the  laws  of  justice   and  right  in  its 
dealings  with  surrounding  nations.     And  that 
great  law  by  which  the  deed  returns  upon  the 
doer's    head   is    thus    written    upon   walls    of 
adamant  by  the  hand  of  time.     We  see  how 
effectual    retributive    punishment,    or    rather 
retributive  justice,  works  in  the  civic  world. 
The  business  man  who  peremptorily  discharges 
a  clerk  upon  the  first  offence  of  drunkenness, 
has    sober   employees  about  him.     The  most 
successful  business  men  will  tell  you  that  they 
do  not  dally  with  inefficiency.     If  an  employee 
can  do  his  work  satisfactorily,  he  is  kept ;  if  he 
does  it  poorly,  he  is  dismissed.     Do  we  not  see 
this  same  law  in  operation  in  society  ?     Let  an 
individual  fail  in  the  courtesies  of  society,  and 
he  is  dropped  by  well-bred  people,  as  the  inevi- 
table consequence  of  being  boorish,  rude,  and 
discourteous.       From    sacred    lips    came    the 
words,  "  With  what  measure  ye  mete,  it  shall  be 
measured  to  you  again."     Can  not  the  mother 
learn  a  great  and  needed  lesson  from  all  these 
sources?     Can  she  not,  in  a  thousand  and  one 
ways,  serenely  and  calmly  teach  her  child  this 


120  The  Instinct  of  Justice^  or 

great  lesson  of  life — that  wo  sin  or  wrong-doing 
can  be  committed  that  does  not  bring  its  own 
punishment  9  The  more  she  lets  the  deed  do 
its  own  punishing,  the  more  impersonal  her 
own  part  in  the  affair,  the  sooner  does  the 
child  learn  the  lesson. 

Let  me  illustrate  again.  One  mornine:  we 
had  a  box  of  sticks  upon  the  table.  A  restless, 
nervous  little  girl  sat  near  it,  and  in  a  moment 
or  two  put  her  hand  into  the  box;  as  it  was 
near  the  edge  of  the  table,  I  cautioned  her 
concerning  it  Soon  the  little  hand  went  in 
again ;  the  box  tilted,  slipped,  and  fell  upon  the 
floor,  while  the  sticks  were  scattered  in  a 
hundred  different  directions.  The  child  looked 
up  in  a  startled  manner.  "  What  a  time  our 
little  girl  will  have  picking  her  sticks  up! "  I 
said,  in  a  matter-of-course  tone;  "but  I  think 
you  can  get  through  in  time  for  the  play  circle. 
Alvin,  please  move  your  chair  so  that  she  can 
get  the  sticks  which  are  under  it."  In  a 
moment  the  child  was  on  her  knees,  rapidly 
picking  up  the  scattered  sticks  without  a  word 
of  objection  or  a  murmur.  Had  I  censured  her, 
or  imposed  some  arbitrary  punishment  upon 
her,  I  should  in  all  probability  have  created  a 
spirit  of  rebellion,  and  have  alienated  her  from 
me,  as  she  was  a  capricious  and  somewhat  self- 


Right  and  Wrong  Punishments.        121 

willed  child.  As  it  was,  she  had  upset  the  box, 
and  as  a  consequence  she  must  pick  up  the 
sticks.  I  have  rarely  ever  failed  in  leading  a 
child  to  see  the  justice  of  such  commaiuis.  In 
fact,  in  a  short  time  they  usually  take  upon 
themselves  the  rectifying  of  the  mistake  or 
misdeed  as  they  best  can. 

A  little  five-year-old  boy  one  morning  asked 
the  privilege  of  going  into  the  next  room  and 
refilling  the  water  pitcher  for  us.  It  was 
granted,  as  we  always  accept  proffered  services 
when  possible.  Upon  his  return  to  the  kinder- 
garten I  noticed  some  very  suspicious  looking 
drops  upon  the  mouth  of  the  pitcher.  "John, 
did  you  spill  the  water?"  I  asked.  "Just  a 
little  bit,"  was  the  reply.  "  Get  the  sponge,' 
said  I,  "  and  wipe  it  up  quickly.  We  must 
not  ask  anyone  else  to  wipe  up  the  water  we 
spill."  In  a  few  minutes  he  returned  to  the 
room,  and  coming  up  to  me  with  a  some- 
what troubled  face,  said  in  a  puzzled  manner, 
as  pondering  the  matter,  "I  guess  those  big 
girls  haven't  got  any  sense."  "Why?"  I 
asked.  "  '  Cause  they  laughed  when  they  saw 
me  wiping  up  the  water  I  had  spilled,  so  I 
guess  they  haven't  got  any  sense,  or  they 
wouldn't  laugh  at  a  tiling  of  that  sort,  would 
they?"   His  sense  of  justice  had  so  acquiesced 


122  The  Instinct  of  Justice,  or 

in  the  command  that  it  seemed  irrational  to 
him  that  anyone  should  be  amused  by  the  deed. 
The  mother,  more  than  the  teacher,  has 
opportunities  to  quietly  let  the  deed  impress 
its  nature  upon  the  child's  mind.  Little  child- 
ren are  naturally  logical  and  quickly  perceive 
justice  or  injustice.  The  child  who  is  rightly 
treated  will  accept  this  right  kind  of  punish- 
ment as  a  matter  of  course.  A  friend  of  mine 
who  had  been  given  this  idea  of  punishment, 
upon  returning  home  one  day  found  that  her 
six-year-old  boy  had  taken  his  younger  brother 
over  to  the  wagon-shop  across  the  street,  a  for- 
bidden spot,  and  they  had  smeared  their  aprons 
with  the  wagon-grease.  In  telling  the  story 
afterwards,  she  said,  "  My  first  impulse  was  to 
whip  the  boy,  because  he  knew  better  than  to 
go;  but  I  thought  I  would  try  the  other  way  of 
punishing  him,  and  see  if  it  would  do  any 
good.  So  I  said,  '  Why,  that's  too  bad.  It  will 
be  rather  hard  for  you  to  get  the  grease  off, 
but  I  think  I  can  help  you,  if  you  will  get 
some  turpentine.  Run  to  the  drug  store  on  the 
corner  and  buy  a  small  bottle  of  it.'  "  On  his 
return  she  took  the  two  aprons  and  spread 
them  upon  the  lloor  of  the  back  porch,  then, 
giving  him  a  little  sponge  and  the  bottle  of 
turpentine,  she  showed  him  how  to  begin  his 


Right  and  Wrong  Pimishmenis.       123 

cleaning.  In  a  few  minutes  he  said,  "  Oh, 
mamma,  this  stuff  smells  horrid!  "  "  Yes,"  she 
serenely  replied,  "  I  know  it  does;  I  dislike  the 
smell  of  turpentine  very  much,  but  I  think  you 
will  get  through  soon."  So  Willie  kept  on 
scrubbing  until  he  had  cleaned  the  aprons  as 
well  as  he  could.  "  Well,"  said  his  mother,  as 
she  helped  him  put  away  the  cleaning  material, 
"I  think  my  boy  will  be  more  careful  about 
going  to  the  wagon  shop,  will  he  not?"  "You 
het  I  will ! "  was  his  emphatic  reply. 

A  young  mother  who  was  filled  with  the 
spirit  of  the  kindergarten,  and  had  wisely 
guided  her  own  children  by  the  insight  obtained 
from  her  kindergarten  study,  was  called  upon 
one  summer  to  take  charge  of  a  little  niece  for 
a  few  weeks.  The  first  morning  after  her 
arrival  at  her  sister's  home,  she  heard  some 
angry  words  in  the  child's  bedroom.  On  open- 
ing the  door  to  inquire  what  was  the  matter, 
the  nurse  said,  "  Oh,  it  is  just  the  usual  fuss 
Miss  Anna  makes  each  morning  over  having 
to  be  dressed.  I  am  sometimes  an  hour  at  it." 
Further  inquiry  showed  that  various  means — 
such  as  bribing,  coaxing,  and  threatening — had 
been  used;  but  all  to  no  avail.  Even  the  last 
device  used — that  of  depriving  her  of  marma- 
lEkde,   her  favorite  dish,   at  each  breakfast  at 


124  The  Instinct  of  Justice,  or 

which  she  was  late — had  proved  ineffectual. 
The  next  morning  the  annt  went  into  the  room 
and  said  quietly,  "  Anna,  you  can  have  Mary 
for  twenty  minutes  to  dress  you;  after  that 
time  I  shall  need  her  down-stairs."  The  child 
looked  at  her  for  a  moment  in  astonishment 
then  went  on  with  her  play.  In  vain  poor  Mary 
coaxed  and  urged.  The  twenty  minutes 
elapsed;  the  child  was  but  half  dressed.  True 
to  her  word,  the  aunt  sent  for  Mary  to  come 
down-stairs.  "  But,  Auntie,"  called  the  child, 
"  I  am  not  dressed  yet."  "  Is  that  so?"  said 
the  aunt.  "I  am  sorry;  jump  back  into  bed 
and  wait  until  Mary  comes  again."  In 
about  fifteen  minutes  the  child  called  out 
petulantly,  "  Auntie,  I  want  to  get  dressed,  I 
tell  you.  Send  Mary  up  to  me."  "  I  cannot 
yet,"  replied  the  aunt  from  below ;  "  she  is  busy 
just  now.  Get  into  bed  again,  and  she  will 
come  as  soon  as  she  can."  Breakfast  was  sent 
up  to  the  child  by  another  servant.  At  the  end 
of  an  hour  Mary  came  back,  and  it  is  needless 
to  say  that  little  Miss  Anna  was  quickly 
dressed.  The  next  morning  the  aunt  again 
gave  the  warning  that  Mary  would  be  needed 
down-stairs  in  just  twenty  minutes.  This  time 
the  warning  took  effect,  and  when  Mary  was 
called  the  child   was    ready.     The    following 


Eight  and  Wtouq  Punishments.       125 

morning,  the  force  of  habit  was  too  strong,  and 
again  came  the  capricious  delay.  Again  Mary 
was  called,  and  again  the  child  was  detained  in 
her  room  for  an  hour.  Two  or  three  such 
experiences,  however,  were  sufficient  to  break  up 
entirely  her  habit  of  dallying.  So  quickly 
comes  the  lesson  taught  by  retributive  punish- 
ment. Many  illustrations  of  the  effectiveness  of 
this  method  might  be  given,  but  surely  are  not 
needed  by  the  thinking  mind. 

Another  great  advantage  gained  is,  that 
retributive  punishment  is  never  inflicted  in 
anger.  Dante  very  graphically  pictures  angry 
souls  as  in  a  muddy,  miry  place,  with  a  slow, 
foul  mist  about  them,  which  hinders  them  from 
seeing  clearly.  If  we  turn  to  the  nations  of  the 
world,  we  see  upon  a  large  scale  the  effects  of 
the  two  ways  of  dealing  with  offenders.  Among 
the  Chinese  it  is  customary,  when  any  official 
has  committed  an  offence  against  the  law,  to 
have  him  taken  to  the  public  square  and 
whipped.  Wliat  are  the  consequences  of  such 
treatment?  Lack  of  self-respect,  of  self- 
reliance,  and  of  self-government.  In  Great 
Britain  and  America,  where  the  laws  in  general 
are  but  the  instruments  for  meting  out  to  each 
man  the  after-effects  of  his  own  deed,  we  see 
the  growth  of  manliness,  of  self-government, 


126  The  Instinct  of  Justice,  or 

and  of  self-respect.  Of  course  the  question 
will  arise,  "But  what  are  we  to  do  when  the 
logical  punishment  or  consequence  of  a  child's 
deed  will  bring  physical  disaster?  "  In  such 
cases  the  moral  disapproval  of  a  mother  should 
be  made  strong  and  emphatic;  if  she  has  kept 
her  child  in  close  sympathy  with  her,  this  will 
be  sufficient.  On  the  other  hand,  scolding, 
shaking,  whipping,  shutting  up  in  dark  closets, 
and  various  other  methods  of  arbitrary  punish- 
ment, which  have  no  possible  connection  in  the 
child's  mind  with  the  deed,  are  apt  to  rouse  in 
him  a  sense  of  injustice,  and  a  feeling  that  the 
parent  has  taken  advantage  of  her  greater 
physical  strength.  By  such  treatment  is  also 
violated  one  of  the  finest  instincts  of  the  child, 
which  is  that  of  expecting  justice,  absolute 
justice,  from  his  parent.  His  sense  of  freedom 
of  conduct  is  injured,  and,  as  I  have  said 
before,  he  is  robbed  of  one  of  the  greatest 
lessons  of  life,  namely,  that  each  violation  of 
law,  physical,  mental,  or  moral,  must  he  paid  for. 
Learn  to  distinguish  between  mere  overflow  of 
animal  spirits  and  intentional  wrong-doing ;  for 
instance,  do  not  punish  your  children  for  such 
offences  as  having  torn  the  finery  with  which 
you  have  injudiciously  clothed  them,  nor  for 


Right  and  Wrong  Punishments.       127 

the  accidents  which  may  arise  during  a  good- 
natured  romp. 

Of  course  too  great  temptations  to  commit  a 
wrong  deed  must  be  avoided.  There  once 
came  to  me  a  mother  with  a  face  full  of 
suppressed  suffering.  "What  shall  I  do?" 
said  she.  "  I  have  discovered  that  my  boy 
steals  money  from  his  father's  purse  and  from 
mine."  "  Give  him  a  purse  of  his  own,"  I 
answered,  "  and  give  him  ways  of  earning 
money  of  his  own ;  let  a  respect  on  your  part  be 
shown  for  his  possessions,  and  thereby  generate 
a  respect  on  his  part  for  your  possessions.  The 
superintendent  of  a  reform  school  once  told  me 
that  two-thirds  of  the  boys  who  came  to  him 
were  sent  on  account  of  having  stolen,  and  that 
he  always  gave  them,  as  soon  as  possible,  a 
plat  of  ground  which  should  be  their  own,  and 
allowed  them  to  raise  their  own  vegetables, 
small  fruit,  or  poultry,  for  the  nearest  market, 
in  order  that  he  might  develop  in  them  a  sense 
of  ownership,  the  lack  of  which  he  firmly 
believed  was  the  cause  of  their  transgressions." 
The  mother  left  me  somewhat  comforted.  A 
week  or  two  after,  she  returned  and  said,  "  I 
have  done  as  you  advised,  and  the  plan  worked 
admirably;  but  this  morning  I  went  to  the  top 
drawer  in  my  bureau  to  get  my  purse,  and  dis- 


128  The  Instinct  of  Justice,  or 

covered  that  he  had  again  been  taking  money 
from  it."  Here  was  an  instance  where,  by 
leaving  her  purse  within  reach,  the  carelessness 
of  the  mother  had  placed  in  her  child's  way  a 
temptation  greater  than  he  could  resist. 

Another  advantage  of  the  retributive  method 
of  punishment  is  that  each  deed  is  punished  or 
rewarded  upon  its  own  plane.  That  is,  material 
defeats  or  conquests  bring  material  loss  or  gain, 
and  spiritual  defeats  or  conquests  bring  spirit- 
ual suffering  or  reward.  Whereas,  when  this 
logical  method  of  procedure  is  not  followed, 
when  a  mere  arbitrary  punishment  is  substitu- 
ted, the  mistake  is  often  made  of  rewarding  or 
punishing  spiritual  efforts  with  material  loss  or 
gain,  thereby  degrading  and  lowering  such 
efforts  in  the  child's  eyes.  Many  a  mother 
thoughtlessly  says  to  her  child,  "  Be  good  to 
little  brother  while  I  am  gone,  and  I  will  buy 
you  some  candy."  "  Give  that  to  kittle  sister, 
and  I  will  give  you  something  better."  Self- 
control  must  not,  in  this  way,  be  connected  in 
the  child's  mind  with  gratification  of  physical 
appetite,  nor  can  the  child  learn  the  sweet  joy 
of  unselfishness  through  the  feeding  of  his 
greed  of  possession.  I  once  discovered  that  a 
little  girl  in  a  primary  class  had  written  her 
spelling  lesson  upon  the  wrong  side  of  the  hem 


Right  and  Wrong  Punishments.       129 

of  her  linen  apron.  Upon  my  afterwards  show- 
ing her  the  dishonesty  of  the  deed,  she  burst 
into  tears  and  sobbed  out,  "I  couldn't  help  it; 
I  couldn't  help  it.  Papa  promised  me  a 
diamond  ring  if  I  wouldn't  miss  in  my  spelling 
this  year."  The  desire  to  obtain  the  coveted 
jewel  was  so  great  that  the  bounds  of  honesty 
and  integrity  had  been  overstepped.  I  once 
knew  a  Sunday-school  superintendent  to  say, 
"  Every  boy  who  comes  early  for  a  mouth  shall 
have  a  present,"  Doubtless,  punctuality  was 
obtained,  but  at  the  price  of  moral  degradation. 
Another  illustration,  an  incident  which  hap- 
pened in  the  childhood  of  a  woman,  shall  be 
told  in  her  own  words:  "Once  when  I  was  a 
little  girl,"  she  said,  "  our  parents  had  left  my 
older  sister  and  myself  alone  for  the  evening. 
Getting  sleepy,  we  went  into  our  mother's 
bedroom,  and  climbing  upon  the  bed  drew  a 
shawl  over  us,  preparatory  to  a  nap  before  their 
return.  In  a  little  while  my  sister  complained 
of  feeling  cold.  With  the  loving  impulse  of  a 
generous  child,  I  gave  her  my  part  of  the 
shawl ;  with  a  real  pleasure  I  spread  it  over 
her,  and  we  were  soon  asleep.  Upon  the  return 
of  our  parents,  the  question  was  asked  why  my 
sister  had  all  the  covering  while  I  had  none. 
Innocently  enough,  explanation  was  made  in 
9 


130  The  Instinct  of  Justice,  or 

the  words,  '  She  was  colder  than  I,  so  I  gave 
her  my  part.'  '  You  dear,  blessed,  unselfish 
little  tiling! '  exclaimed  my  father,  ■'  here's  ten 
cents  for  you  to  reward  you  for  your  unselfish- 
ness.' A  few  evenings  after,  our  parents  were 
again  invited  out,  and  again  we  children  were 
left  alone  in  our  part  of  the  house.  I  began  at 
once  planning  a  scheme  to  coax  my  sister  to 
again  go  into  our  mother's  bedroom  for  a  nap, 
in  order  that  I  might  repeat  the  deed  which  had 
earned  me  ten  cents.  I  succeeded,  although  this 
time  it  was  with  some  coaxing  that  I  got  her  to 
accept  the  extra  portion  of  the  covering.  For 
nearly  an  hour  I  lay  waiting  for  the  return  of 
my  father,  in  order  that  I  might  gain  financial 
profit  by  my  conduct."  Thus  easily  and 
quickly  the  sweet,  generous,  unselfish  impulse 
of  a  childish  heart  was  changed  by  the  mere 
thought  of  material  gain  into  sordid,  selfish 
and  deceptive  conduct. 

When  the  mother  realizes  the  true  nature  of 
punishment,  there  is  never  detected  in  the 
tones  of  her  voice  what  Emerson  calls  a  lust  of 
power.  Too  often  children  hear  beneath  the 
mere  word  of  command  the  undertone  which 
says,  "I'll  show  you  that  I'll  have  7nij  imy.''^ 
The  farther  the  child's  self-government  is 
advanced,  the  higher  his  ideals  of  right  and 


Right  and  Wrong  Pumshmenfs.       131 

wrong,  the  more  will  he  resent  this  assertion  of 
your  personal  will-power.  If  possible,  let  the 
instinct  of  justice,  which  is  within  each  child, 
feel  that  the  command  has  been  given  because 
the  thing  to  be  done  is  necessary  and  right. 
A  child  readily  realizes  that  scattered  toys 
must  be  gathered  up,  that  soiled  clothes  must 
be  changed,  that  tardiness  necessarily  brings  a 
loss  of  opportunity,  that  money  foolishly  spent 
by  him  will  not  be  re-supplied  by  the  parent, 
that  teasing  or  tormenting  the  younger  brother 
or  sister  cause  a  loss  of  the  society  of  the  mis- 
treated one,  that  petulance  upon  his  part  brings 
silence  upon  the  part  of  the  mother,  that  reck- 
lessness when  on  the  street  causes  loss  of  liberty. 
When  the  punishments  thus  fall  upon  the  plane 
of  the  deed  in  these  minor  offences,  the  child 
sooner  learns  to  recognize  the  loss  of  respect 
which  comes  from  lying,  the  dissatisfaction  of 
ill-gotten  gains,  the  weariness  of  hypocrisy,  the 
wretchedness  of  jealousy,  the  bitterness  of 
envy,  the  isolation  of  selfishness;  he  sooner 
learns  that  contentment  comes  only  with  honest 
gains,  that  respect  follows  always  the  upright 
man,  that  love  springs  up  around  the  sympa- 
thetic soul,  that  happy  participation  is  the 
reward  of  the  unenvious,  and  that  joy  fills  the 
unselfish  heart. 


132  The  Instinct  of  JusHce,  or 

I  was  walking  one  day  with  a  young  mother 
whose  heart  was  filled  with  wild  rebellion 
over  the  death  of  her  beautiful  baby.  "  Do 
not  talk  to  me,"  she  said,  "  of  the  justice  or 
love  of  a  God  who  could  take  from  me  such 
joy  and  cause  me  to  suffer  so  much.  I  cau 
not  believe  in  such  a  Being."  Just  at  this 
time  we  came  upon  her  little  daughter,  about 
five  years  of  age,  who  was  playing  in  the 
street.  "  My  dear  child,"  exclaimed  the 
mother,  "  run  into  the  house  at  once.  You 
will  catch  a  severe  cold  out  here.  The  wind  is 
very  sharp,  and  you  are  not  sufficiently 
wrapped."  "Oh,  no,  mamma,"  exclaimed  the 
little  girl,  "  I  shall  not  take  cold.  Please  let 
me  stay."  "  My  dear,"  said  her  mother  sternly, 
"we  will  not  argue  the  question;  mamma 
knows  best.  Go  into  the  house  at  once."  As 
the  child  turned  to  obey  the  command,  she 
burst  into  a  flood  of  tears,  and  sobbed,  "  You 
do  not  love  me,  mamma.  You  do  not  love  me, 
or  you  would  not  take  my  happy  times  away 
from  me.  You  do  not  love  me  at  all.  I  know 
you  do  not."  We  walked  on  in  silence  for 
some  time.  Suddenly  my  friend  turned  to  me 
and  said,  "  Why  do  you  not  tell  me  that  my 
own  child  has  answered  my  question?" 
-^  "Remain  thou  in  the  unity  of  life  thyself," 


Right  and  Wrong  Punishments.       133 

says  Froebel,  "  or  else  thou  canst  not  lead  thy 
child  therein."  We  are  not  ready  to  teach  our 
children  the  true  olfice  and  nature  of  punish- 
ment or  retribution,  until  we  ourselves  perceive 
that  the  sorrow  and  suffering  which  come  to 
us  are  but  angels  in  disguise;  until  we  are 
ready  to  say  with  such  grand  souls  as  AVilliam 
Gannett:  "Though  the  heart  cries,  '  Is  there 
no  waste  of  suffering?'  when  Nature  burns 
three  hundred  lives  as  readily  as  three,  when 
earthquake  waves  drown  men  like  flies,  when 
the  ignorance  or  sin  of  one  man  involves  a 
lineage  or  a  nation  in  disaster,  is  there  nothing 
spendthrift  in  such  tragedy?  Again  the  mind, 
slow-thinking,  answers:  That  seeming  spend- 
thrift unconcern  of  Nature  may  be  her  deep 
concern,  that  seeming  waste  may  be  some  arcii- 
economy  of  tragedy.  For  see:  to  reach  her 
end — a  '  man,'  an  ever-growing  '  man ' — as 
speedily  as  possible,  all  fragments  of  experience 
must  be  garnered  up  and  utilized.  To  this  end 
are  we  bound  together  in  one  vast  brotherhood 
of  acting  and  re-acting  influences,  all  memb^  Vo 
of  the  race,  yea,  of  all  races,  actively  and  pas- 
sively co-operating — nothing  living,  nothing 
dying,  to  itself.  That  not  a  pang  be  lost,  life 
is  linked  to  life  across  all  time,  across  all  space. 
/  Linked  in  time:  hence   those   dread   laws   of 


134  The  Instinct  of  Justice^  or 

heritage  by  which  the  crooked  back  and  the 
disease  are  transmitted  to  irresponsible  and 
helpless  sufferers.  That  looks  like  waste  of 
I  woe.  At  last  they  teach  the  world  the  rule  of 
health;  and  clearing  blood,  the  bones  set 
straight,  the  lengthening  average  of  life,  the 
greatening  powers  of  human  joy  and  human 
usefulness, — all  these  transmitted  also  attest  the 
good  intent  that  lurked  along  the  ages.  And 
linked  in  space:  the  tiger  cholera,  stealing  from 
the  Ganges,  strides  with  silent  footfall  through 
the  nations,  leaving  death  behind  it,  and  at  last 
robs  homes  upon  the  Mississippi's  banks;  the 
war  in  America  starved  English  weavers  and 
made  the  fields  of  Egypt  white  with  cotton  har- 
vests. It  looks  like  waste,  but  these  are  the 
'vicarious  atonements'  of  history,  the  great 
give-and-take  by  which  the  generations  and  the 
races  bequeath  and  share  experience,  one  suffer- 
ing from  and  for  another,  to  the  end  that '  man ' 
may  have  life  and  have  it  more  speedily  and 
more  abundantly.  And  there  are  countless 
small  vicarious  atonements  of  daily  life,  in 
which  we  all  unceasingly  take  part — the  ever- 
spread  communion-table  of  the  heart-break  and 
the  blood.  It  is  tragedy.  '  How  long,  O 
Lord ! '  we  cry,  as  we  gaze  at  the  lasting, 
circling  woe.     But  we  can  see  that  this  com- 


Right  and  Wrong  Punishments.       135 

munion  hives  experience  the  faster,  and  so  brings 
faster  on  the  general  good;  that  by  the  same 
laws  of  communion,  wisdom  and  saintship,  also, 
are  garnered  in  ministries  of  joy;  that  only  by 
such  co-operation,  making  the  race  one  man, 
could  life  so  soon  have  become  the  boon  it  is, 
the  ever-richening  boon  it  will  be  for  future 
populations  that  will  call  us  ancient.  Not  that 
we  can  always  trace  the  vicarious  and  co-opera- 
tive suffering  to  its  outcome  in  beneficence;  too 
vast  and  secret  and  complex  are  the  connections 
in  the  social  organism.  But  when,  over  and 
over  agdin,  evil  is  seen  to  be  at  last  evolving 
good,  assurance  grows  in  us  that  good  will 
always  and  everywhere  prevail;  and  that  the 
seeming  exceptions  will,  when  truly  under- 
stood, prove  subtler,  vaster  instances  of  the 
fact  that  the  world's  disorder  is  order-in-the- 
making." 
>i  If  by  your  training  you  can  give  to  your 
j  y  child  this  exalted  view  of  life,  is  it  not  worth 
^  the  self-control  on  your  part  which  it  requires  ? 


CHAPTEK    VII. 

INSTINCT  OF  REOOGNITION,    OR   THE   TRAINING   OF 
THE  WILL. 

"Must  I  do  it?"  exclaims  the  child,  when 
he  is  confronted  by  the  command  o£  another, 
and  the  instinct  of  freedom  beorins  to  stir  with- 
in  him.  ''Must  I  do  it?"  This  is  an  im- 
portant period  in  each  child's  life,  and  should 
be  well  understood  by  the  mother  or  teacher. 
How  is  the  obedience  to  the  everlasting  and 
eternal  right  to  be  obtained,  and  yet,  at  the 
same  time,  the  child  be  left  to  obey  of  his  own 
accord?  The  problem  is  as  old  as  recorded 
time,  yet  ever  new,  and  demands  a  practical 
solution  each  day.  In  other  words,  by  what 
process  of  training  can  the  outward  must  be 
changed  to  the  inward  ought,  and  thus  the  child 
be  developed  into  a  tree,  self-determining 
being?  "Unless  a  man  has  a  Avill  within 
him,"  says  Emerson,  "  you  can  tie  him  to  noth- 
ing." There  is  no  wall  or  safeguard  which 
love  can  build  around  its  object  strong  enough 
and  high  enough  to  keep  away  temptation. 
The  wall  must  be  within,  or  else  sooner  or 
later  the  citadel  yields  to  the  enemy.  One  oi 
136 


The  Training  of  the  Will  137 

the  most  significant  of  tlie  old  Homeric  stories 
is  that  of  the  Greeks  vainly  endeavoring  to  build 
up  a  wall  in  front  of  their  ships  which  should 
defend  them  from  their  Trojan  foes,  and  thus 
take  the  place  of  the  strength  and  courage  of 
their  hero,  Achilles,  who  had  withdrawn  from 
their  midst.  The  moment  of  danger  came ;  at 
the  height  of  the  battle  the  wall  gave  way  and 
Hector  and  his  troops  rushed  in  upon  them. 
The  same  is  true  to-day  that  was  true  in  the 
days  of  the  Iliad.  Sooner  or  later  external 
walls  raust  give  way ;  the  inner  wall  alone  can 
stem  the  tide  of  temptation.  The  moral  will- 
power of  the  child  becomes  strong  only  as  his 
conscience  becomes  enlightened  and  educated. 
AVhether  the  moral  faculty  is  innate  or  a 
matter  of  education,  is  a  disputed  point.  "  In- 
herited virtue,"  says  Washington  Irving,  "  is 
a  patent  of  innate  nobility  which  far  outshines 
the  blazonry  of  heraldry."  It  was  President 
Dwight,  I  think,  who  said  that  each  child 
should  begin  his  education  by  selecting  the 
right  kind  of  parents.  Much  can  and  should 
be  said  upon  the  matter  of  the  moral  responsi- 
bility which  marriage  brings.  But  granting 
all  that  is  urged  concerning  the  inheritance 
received  from  parents,  we  must  still  acknow- 
ledge that  much  is  to  be  done  in  the  training 


138  Instinct  of  Recognition,  or 

of  the  will,  and  that  far-reaching  is  the  effect 
of  its  strength  or  weakness.  Therefore  the 
problem  resolves  itself  into  the  question,  how 
shall  we  educate  aright  the  consciences  of  the 
children?  Sasan  Blow  has  defined  conscience 
as  "a  perception  of  what  we  are,  in  the  light 
of  what  we  ought  to  be."  In  the  past,  two 
methods  of  educating  the  conscience  have 
been  used.  The  first  is  that  of  requiring 
formal  obedience.  The  intense  desire  to  have 
the  right  thing  done,  created  in  the  parent  a 
sternness  which  compelled  the  child  to  obey, 
regardless  of  the  fact  that  his  rationality  and 
will-power  were  thereby  weakened,  or  rather 
not  strengthened,  and  the  parent's  will  often 
grew  into  tyranny.  The  will,  like  every 
muscle,  organ,  or  faculty,  becomes  strong  by 
being  judiciously  exercised.  These  advocates 
of  formal,  unhesitating,  unquestioning  obedi- 
ence, frequently  defend  their  position  with 
quotations  from  Scripture;  for  example,  they 
will  cite  you  the  words,  "Spare  the  rod  and 
spoil  the  child,"  utterly  ignoring  the  fact  that 
rod  here  means  punishment,  just  as  much  as 
the  word  pulpit  stands  for  clergymen  in  the 
sentence,  "  The  pulpits  endorse  the  move- 
ment," or  the  word  sail  for  vessel,  in  "They 
captured  ten  sail."    Again,  they  will  frequently 


The  Training  of  the  Will  139 

refer  you  to  that  passage  of  Scripture  which 
says,  "  Children  obey  your  parents,"  though 
they  oftentimes  forget  to  add,  "  in  the  Lord." 
We  grant  that  the  mere  habit  of  doing  right  is 
something ;  with  very  small  children,  it  is  much. 
But  the  will,  that  safeguard  in  the  hour  of 
temptation,  does  not  begin  to  grow  until 
definite  choice  is  made  by  the  individual. 
Power  to  choose  the  right  comes  only  from 
having  chosen  to  do  right  many  times. 
Oftentimes  too  great  dependence  upon  the 
parent's  will  leaves  the  youth  who  has  reached 
the  age  of  maturity  still  a  child  in  strength  of 
will.  This  is,  to  me,  the  explanation  why  so 
many  boys  who  have  been  strictly  brought  up 
by  pains-taking,  conscientious  parents,  sud- 
denly enter  upon  a  wild  and  reckless  career  as 
soon  as  they  merge  into  the  world  at  large. 

The  second  method  of  educating  the  con- 
science is  fully  as  detrimental.  Many  persons 
have  realized  that  virtiie,  to  be  virtue,  must  be 
voluntary;  that  will-power,  to  amount  to  any- 
thing, must  be  the  will-power  which  is  within 
and  not  without  the  individual ;  they  have  there- 
fore gone  to  the  other  extreme,  and  have  re- 
quired no  obedience  from  the  child,  allowing  his 
own  caprice  and  the  humor  of  the  moment  to 
govern  him  during  that  period  of  life  when  im- 


140  Instinct  of  Recognition,  or 

pulses  are  strong  and  rationality  is  feeble.  This 
of  course  has  been  the  extreme  rebound  from 
the  severity  of  the  first  method.  Words  are 
scarcely  needed  to  show  the  lack  of  wisdom 
in  the  parent  or  teacher  who  yields  his  judg- 
ment, which  years  of  experience  and  observa- 
tion and  thought  have  matured,  to  the  caprice 
of  the  child.  I  once  asked  a  mother  if  her 
child  was  in  any  kindergarten.  "  No,"  she 
answered,  "I  took  him  to  one,  but  he  didn't 
care  to  stay,  so  I  let  him  come  home,  and  we 
have  not  attempted  it  since.  I  am  sorry." 
The  momentary  mood  of  the  child  had  over- 
ruled the  rational  judgment  of  the  mother. 
■'Compulsion  is  the  attempt  to  secure  obedience 
iregardless  of  the  child's  desire ;  this  desire  must 
,  appear  before  each  right  exercise  of  the  will. 
Caprice  is  allowing  the  desire  of  the  moment 
to  govern  the  conduct,  regardless  of  future 
consequences;  whereas  voluntary  obedience  is 
the  deed  which  is  performed  after  the  right 
stages  of  will-growth  have  been  passed 
through.  First,  the  individual  is  led  to  de- 
sire to  do  a  thing;  second,  he  thinks  about 
it;  third,  he  wills  to  do  it;  and  fourth,  he  vol- 
untarily does  it.  Compulsion  is  the  attempt 
to  obtain  the  fruit  of  voluntary  doing  without 
the  planting  of  the  right  seed.     The  creating 


The  Training  of  tlie  Will.  141 

of  the  desires  for  right  conduct  makes  all  the 
difference  between  voluntary  Q.ndi  forced  obedi- 
ence. Unfortunate  indeed  is  the  poor  little 
creature  who  is  brought  up  without  the  idea  of 
obedience.  Bitter  must  be  the  lessons  which 
experience  will  have  to  teach  him  if  he  ever 
truly  masters  his  life.  Too  many  childi-en, 
who  have  never  been  given  this  idea  of  true 
obedience  during  childhood,  make  failures  of 
their  after  careers  from  the  simple  fact  that 
they  have  not  learned  that  there  are  certain 
mighty  laws  which  must  he  obeyed.  I  firmly 
believe,  however,  that  most  children  when 
rightly  trained  can  be  brougkt  into  obedience 
without  being  forced  into  it. 

There  are  of  course  many  little  devices  which 
will  aid  the  mother  in  leading  her  child  to  vol- 
untarily do  the  right  thing.  For  example,  a 
strong-willed  child — that  is,  a  child  with  the 
instinct  of  freedom  largely  developed  within 
him — can  frequently  be  brought  into  the  right 
way  of  doing  by  having  a  choice  between  two 
things  given  him.  As,  for  example,  "  You 
may  be  quiet,  or  you  must  leave  the  parlor; 
you  may  pick  up  your  playthings,  or  you  must 
go  without  them  to-morrow."  Thus  a  certain 
amount  of  freedom  is  given  to  him  by  this 
opportunity  to  choose,  and  at  the  same  time  a 


142  Instinct  of  Recognition^  or 

certain  amount  of  obedience  is  exacted  in  that 
he  must  choose  one  or  the  other  of  the  alterna- 
tives. Again,  a  regular  time  is  a  great  aid  in 
the  performance  of  a  duty.  The  little  one  who 
knows  that  at  half-past  seven  he  must  go  to 
bed,  is  not  apt  to  demur  when  the  time  comes; 
whereas,  the  child  who  is  sent  to  bed  at  seven 
o'clock  one  night,  at  half -past  seven  another, 
and  at  eight  a  third,  is  very  apt  to  feel  that  the 
bed  hour  is  a  mere  whim  on  his  mother's  part, 
and  the  inviolability  of  law  which  aided  the 
mother  in  the  first  instance  is  lacking  in  the 
second.  A  fiiend  once  sent  her  twelve-year- 
old  boy  away  from  the  table  to  wash  his  hands. 
Upon  his  return,  she  said,  "  Will,  why  do  you 
persistently  come  to  the  table  without  washing 
your  hands,  when  you  know  that  each  time  you 
do  it  I  send  you  away?"  "No,"  answered 
the  boy  frankly,  "  you  forgot  to  do  it  one  time." 
That  one  break  in  the  continuity  of  command 
had  created  in  his  mind  the  hope  that  he  might 
again  escape  the  disagreeable  duty.  Another 
device  is  giving  a  child  a  definite  time  when  he 
must  stop  his  play  or  work,  with  the  assurance 
that  he  can  again  begin  it;  as,  for  example, 
''Come  in  now,  it  is  time  for  you  to  practice; 
you  can  go  out  again  to-morrow,"  or,  "TVe 
must   stop   reading   now   and  get   ready   for 


The  Training  of  the  Will.  143 

dinner ;  we  can  read  tins  evening."  With  small 
children  it  is  often  well  to  prepare  them  for  the 
command  in  some  such  way  as,  "Five  minutes 
more,  and  my  little  girl  must  put  up  her 
dollies."  These,  however,  are  mere  devices 
used  by  the  quick-witted  mother;  but  Froebel 
would  have  the  law  by  which  the  will-power  is 
developed  distinctly  understood.  The  instinct 
of  recognition  must  be  comprehended  in  order 
that  this  law  may  be  properly  applied. 

As  soon  as  a  child  arrives  at  a  perception  of 
his  own  individuality  this  instinct  awakens — 
he  desires  his  individuality  to  be  acknowledged 
by  the  people  about  him.  The  recognition 
usually  comes  through  their  expressed  opin- 
ions concerning  him  and  his  conduct.  Froebel 
says,  in  the  motto  to  the  little  song  called 
"  The  Five  Knights,"— 

"  Dear  Mother,  use  your  best  and  your  most  watchful  care, 
When  first  he  listens  to  some  stranger  who  is  there; 
Life's  truest  voice  has  struck  upon  his  ear, 
A  new  life-stage  begins,  but  do  not  fear." 

The  "  new  life-stage  "  refers  to  the  dawning 
realization  in  the  child's  mind  that  he  "lives 
not  in  life  alone."  In  the  little  game  of  "  Peek- 
a-boo,"  common  to  all  nurseries,  Froebel  traces 
the  child's  pleasure  in  tlie  game  to  this  joyous 
delight  in   being  recognized.     "It  is  not  bo 


144  Instinct  of  Recognition,  or 

much,"  says  he,  "in  the  hiding  of  your  dear 
child,  as  it  is  in  the  joyful  anticipation  of  being 
found  again  by  you."  The  instinct  is  as  old  as 
the  race.  We  find  outlined  upon  the  walls  of 
the  Egyptian  tombs  pictures  of  their  rulers  and 
leaders,  towering  like  giants  above  the  armies 
which  followed  them;  not  that  they  were  phy- 
sically larger,  but  these  pictures  were  intended 
to  portray  recognition  of  their  superiority, 
their  larger  individuality.  Wherever  man  has 
had  the  power  to  accomplish  the  desires  of  his 
heart  we  have  found  him  building  for  himself 
tombs  and  monuments,  that  he  as  an  individual 
might  be  recognized  by  future  generations. 
From  what  comes  the  love  of  wearing  medals 
and  badges,  but  from  the  fact  that  they  are  the 
external  sign  given  by  some  society  or  associa- 
tion as  a  testimonial  of  the  worthiness  of  the 
individual  to  become  a  member  of  the  organi- 
zation? With  nations  it  is  the  same.  They 
build  beautiful  temples,  and  magnificent  state- 
houses,  and  other  grand  and  imposing  build- 
ings, that  surrounding  states  or  nations  may 
acknowledge  their  enterprise,  wealth,  and 
artistic  or  religious  superiority.  It  is  owing  to 
this  instinctive  desire  for  recognition  and 
approval  that  public  opinion  has  so  strong  a 
hold  upon  the    mass  of   mankind.       What   is 


The  Training  of  the  Will.  145 

public  opinion  but  the  aggregation  of  the 
recognition  of  many  individuals?  It  is  not  the 
number  of  people  collected  together  which 
makes  civilization,  but  the  influence  engendered 
by  the  thought  of  the  community,  or,  in  other 
words,  the  advance  of  public  opinion.  One  era 
of  time  allowed  the  putting  to  death  of  cripples 
and  weaklings ;  in  our  age  public  sentiment  has 
made  it  the  most  sacred  obligation  of  mankind 
to  tenderly  care  for  them.  This  atmosphere  of 
pablie  opinion  surrounds  us  at  all  times.  The 
hero  alone  rises  much  above  it,  and  almost 
beyond  redemption  is  the  soul  that  sinks  into 
entire  indifference  to  it.  In  talking  of  this 
subject  an  old  farmer  once  said  to  me,  "  I 
sometimes  find  a  six-foot  high  stalk  of  corn  in  a 
five-foot  high  field,  and  occasionally  I  find  a 
seven-foot  hiofh  stalk  in  a  six-foot  hiofh  field; 
but  I  never  find  a  seven-foot  stalk  in  a  five- foot 
field."  It  is  the  same  thought  better  expressed 
by  Emerson  when  he  said  it  took  four  hundred 
years  of  culture  and  education  and  French 
salons  to  produce  a  Madame  De  Stael. 

Drummond  refers  to  this  same  subtle  influ- 
ence of  the  opinions  of  others.  In  his  little  book 
called  "Modes  of  Sanctification,"  he  says:  "In 
your  face  you  reflect  your  nationality.  I  ask  a 
man  a  question,  and  I  find  out  in  ten  seconds 
10 


146  Instinct  of  Recognition,  or 

whether  he  is  a  Northerner,  a  Southerner,  a 
Canadian,  or  an  Englishman.  He  has  reflected 
his  country  in  his  very  voice.  I  see  reflected 
in  a  mirror  that  he  has  read  Herbert  Spencer 
and  Huxley  and  Darwin;  and  as  I  go  on 
watching  him,  as  he  stands  and  talks  to  me,  his 
whole  life  is  reflected  from  it.  I  see  the  kind 
of  state  he  has  been  living  in,  the  companions 
he  has  had;  he  cannot  help  reflecting,  he  can- 
not help  himself  from  showing  the  environment 
in  which  he  has  lived,  the  influences  that  have 
played  around  him.  As  Tennyson  says,  '  I  am 
a  part  of  all  that  I  have  met,'  Every  man  is 
influenced  by  the  people  and  things  that  sur- 
round him.  You  sometimes  see  husband  and 
wife,  after  half  a  century  of  fellowship,  changed 
entirely  into  the  same  image.  They  have  gone 
on  reflecting  one  another  so  often  that  they 
have  become  largely  made  up  of  the  same 
qualities  and  characteristics.  That  is  the  great 
doctrine  of  influences:  we  become  like  those 
with  whom  we  associate." 

The  child  comes  into  this  moulding  atmos- 
phere of  opinions  floating  about  him  while  the 
inborn  instinct  of  recognition  is  within  him, 
reaching  out  eagerly  for  the  approval  of  the 
public  opinion  of  his  little  world.  Froebel 
would  have  the  mother  take  advantage  of  this 


The  Training  of  ike  Will.  147 

oondition  of  things  and  train  the  instinct 
aright ;  for,  like  all  other  instincts  given  to  the 
child,  it  can  be  trained  upward  or  downward. 
If  the  mere  external  surroundings,  appearances, 
or  other  incidentals,  are  what  is  praised  or 
approved,  vanity  is  engendered.  Vanity  is  all- 
devouring,  insatiable,  never-satisfied,  and  con- 
sequently degenerates  into  bragging  or  into 
an  exaggeration  of  its  merits  in  order  that  it 
may  obtain  more  praise.  Bragging  naturally 
descends  into  lying  and  other  forms  of  deceit 
If,  however,  the  approval  has  been  given  to  the 
child's  endeavor  rather  than  his  appearance,  to 
his  motive  rather  than  his  deed,  the  hungering 
desire  for  more  approval  leads  him  into  greater 
effort.  This  engenders  love;  and  love  of  this 
sort  borders  close  on  reverence.  Thus  the 
mother  has  in  her  hands  the  powerful  instru- 
ments of  praise  and  censure.  That  which  she 
praises,  the  child  will  strive  for;  that  which  she 
has  unvaryingly  censured,  the  child  will  avoid — 
provided,  of  course,  that  she  is  consistent  in 
her  adherence  to  the  standards  which  she 
places  before  him.  The  real  standard — that  is, 
the  standard  which  the  life  and  conduct  show, 
not  merely  the  standard  preached — becomes  the 
chilli's  ideal.  Care  should  be  taken  not  oTily  in 
the  approving  or  disapproving  of  the  people 


148  Instinct  of  Recognition,  or 

about  him,  but  much  judgment  must  be  exer- 
cised in  what  to  approve  of  in  the  child  himself. 
Character  is  to  be  praised  rather  than  clothes; 
effort  which  helps  to  strengthen  the  character 
rather  than  any  external  gift  or  attraction  what- 
soever. 

I  knew  of  one  mother  whose  child's  beautiful 
golden  curls  attracted  so  much  attention  that 
the  mother  saw  the  effects  of  growing  vanity  and 
self-consciousness  in  the  child.  So  great  was 
her  love  for  her  little  daughter,  so  clear  her 
insight  and  so  strong  her  will-power,  that  with 
her  own  hands  she  quietly  cut  the  beautiful 
shining  curls  from  off  the  little  head.  I  know 
of  but  few  mothers  who  have  such  courage. 
The  sweet,  unconscious  beauty  of  character, 
developed  at  a  later  period  in  the  daughter, 
shoAved  the  wisdom  of  the  mother.  We  have  in 
our  kindergarten  a  little  game  in  which  one 
child  is  placed  in  the  center  with  his  eyes 
closed,  and  another  is  sent  out  of  the  circle. 
The  first  opens  his  eyes  and  tries  by  memory  to 
tell  the  name  of  the  missing  one.  One  morning, 
when  the  child  who  had  been  sent  to  the  center 
of  the  circle  could  not  recall  the  name  of  the 
absent  one,  another  little  one  ventured  to  assist 
his  memory  by  saying,  "  She  had  on  a  green 
dress,  and  stood  next  to  me."    Instantly  one  of 


The  Training  of  the  Will  149 

the  older  boys  of  the  kindergarten,  whose  two 
years  had  taught  him  much,  exclaimed  Avith  an 
emphatic  shake  of  his  head,  "  It  doesn't  make 
any  difference  what  you  wear  or  where  you 
stand,  it's  what  you  can  do."  This  was  the 
result  of  my  having  always  described  the  child 
sent  from  the  circle  when  playing  the  game  and 
help  was  needed,  by  some  of  his  meritorious 
activities.  I  smiled  to  myself  as  I  thought  of 
the  change  in  position  in  the  world  at  large 
which  such  a  standard  set  up  by  the  emphatic 
boy  would  create.  Yet,  is  it  not  the  true  test  to 
which  time  finally  brings  all  mortals  ?  What  in 
our  eyes  to-day  is  the  finery  in  which  the 
monarchs  of  the  sixteenth  century  arrayed 
themselves,  compared  with  the  deeds  of  Luther  ? 
What  is  the  social  rank  and  worship  which  the 
Emperors  demanded,  compared  to  the  reverence 
which  we  now  give  to  the  name  of  Epictetus? 
Well-told  stories,  which  have  in  them  admir- 
able traits  of  character,  are  powerful  instru- 
ments in  the  hands  of  mothers  and  teachers.  I 
remember  at  one  time,  as  the  Thanksgiving 
season  approached,  I  decided  to  lead  the  chil- 
dren of  whom  I  had  charge  to  desire  to  make  to 
a  certain  hospital  a  Thanksgiving  ofporing  of 
fruit  saved  tlirough  self-denial  from  their  own 
luncheons.     Realizing    that    effort    was   best 


150  Instinct  of  Recognition,  or 

made  when  an  ideal  towards  which  to  strive 
was  placed  in  an  interesting  manner  before  the 
child,  I  told  them  a  story  of  a  little  boy  and 
girl,  taking  care  to  make  the  two  children  in 
the  story  as  attractive  as  possible  to  their 
young  hearts.  At  the  end,  my  little  hero  and 
heroine  decided  to  do  without  oranges  for 
breakfast  for  a  week,  and  to  send  them  to  some 
little  children  across  the  street  who  were  less 
fortunate  than  themselves.  I  then  described, 
as  vividly  as  possible,  the  great  pleasure  and 
delight  which  was  experienced  by  the  surprise 
of  the  other  children,  and  the  satisfaction  felt 
by  the  little  givers.  The  story  ended  in  a 
bright,  lively  manner,  and  nothing  further  was 
said.  The  next  day  when  luncheon  time  came, 
one  of  my  older  boys  said,  "  I  am  going  to  save 
my  orange  to-day  for  some  little  child  who 
hasn't  one."  "  So  am  I  !  "  "  And  I  !  "  "  And 
I  ! "  exclaimed  other  little  children.  The  next 
day  I  told  them  of  the  hospital  which  I  had 
visited,  and  of  the  pleasure  I  thought  it  would 
give  the  invalids  if  they  knew  that  some  dear 
little  children  were  intending  to  send  them  part 
of  their  fruit  for  Thanksgiving  day,  and  pro- 
posed that  those  who  Avished  to  share  their  good 
things  with  others  should  put  them  all  together 
and  send  them  to  the  hospital.    The  suggestion 


The  Training  of  the  Will  151 

was  received  with  delight.  Voluntary  offerings 
were  given  each  luncheon-time  from  then  to 
the  day  before  Thanksgiving.  I  do  not  mean 
to  claim  by  this  that  any  especial  influence  is 
obtained  or  effect  produced  by  the  "  goody- 
goody  "  stories  in  which  supernatural  children 
do  unnatural  things;  but  simply  that  the  true, 
wholesome,  generous  deed,  within  the  possibil- 
ity of  the  child's  performance,  can  be  made  so 
attractive  in  its  ideal  form  of  story  or  game 
that  the  child  voluntarily  attempts  to  do  like- 
wise. "  The  deeds  attained  by  great  souls," 
says  Alger,  "  become  the  ideals  towards  which 
lesser  souls  strive."  In  fact,  the  greatest  thing 
that  a  hero  does  for  the  world  is  to  he  a  hero  and 
thereby  inspire  others  to  heroic  living.  When 
this  holding  of  the  ever-advancing  ideal  before 
the  child  in  so  attractive  a  manner  as  to  draw 
his  affections  toward  it  is  once  understood,  the 
mother  or  teacher  can  lead  the  child  to  will  to 
do  almost  anything. 

When  we  see  the  little  street  Arabs  of  our 
large  cities,  ragged,  dirty,  and  hungry,  smok- 
ing cigarettes  or  cigars  with  a  triumphant  air 
of  having  attained  a  much-envied  distinction, 
we  know  that  their  standard  of  manhood  is 
measured  by  the  length  of  the  cigar  or  size  of 
a  pipe  which  a  man  can  smoke.     We  know  that 


152  Instinct  of  Recognition,  or 

high  ideals  have  never  been  given  to  their 
little  souls,  and  that  they  have  reached  out  for 
some  standard  by  which  to  measure  their 
growing  manliness,  and  have  taken  this  external 
distinction  as  the  test.  With  this  thought  in 
our  minds,  we  cannot  urge  too  strongly  upon  our 
public  schools  the  celebration  of  such  days  as 
Washington's  Birthday,  Decoration  Day,  and 
other  days  which  commemorate  the  great  heroes 
of  a  nation.  So,  too,  have  the  monuments  and 
statues  in  our  parks  and  public  squares  a  bene- 
ficial influence.  By  these  means  children  learn 
to  know  what  are  the  types  of  character  v/hich 
a  nation  delights  to  honor. 

Froebel  so  well  understood  the  value  of 
placing  attractive  ideals  before  children  that  he 
has  given  us  a  little  dramatic  game  of  "The 
Five  Knights."  This  can  be  used  as  a  little 
song  or  play  with  the  baby  in  the  nursery,  in 
which  case  the  fingers  galloping  over  the  table 
represent  the  knights  galloping  into  the  court- 
yard of  the  castle.  With  the  older  children  in 
the  kindergarten  it  is  usually  dramatized  by 
five  children  being  selected  to  represent  the  five 
knights.  These  are  sent  out,  and  at  a  certain 
stage  of  the  game  come  galloping  into  the 
room,  always  upon  an  imaginary  charger  such 
as  would  have  delighted  the  souls  of  the  heroes 


The  Training  of  the  Will.  153 

of  old.  True  to  his  method  of  always  choosing 
the  symbolical  thing  by  which  to  teach  the 
child,  Froebel  has  selected  the  knight  as  a 
symbol  of  the  highest  public  opinion.  They 
not  only  draw  forth  the  child's  admiration  of 
the  man  on  horseback,  with  his  power  to 
control  the  brute-force  beneath  him,  but  they 
also  symbolize  that  class  of  persons  who  have 
the  most  complete  control  over  themselves,  who 
were  universal  when  the  rest  of  the  race  was 
feudal  and  narrow.  Knighthood  arose  among 
the  class  of  men  who  forswore  all  that  was  low 
and  debasing  when  the  world  was  sunk  in  igno- 
rance and  sensuality,  and  the  word  still  remains 
as  a  title  of  the  best  of  the  race.  "When  we 
speak  of  knightly  conduct  we  have  reference  to 
all  that  is  chivalrous  and  truly  noble.  Froebel 
thus  gives  to  the  mother  the  hint  of  the  class 
of  persons  to  whom  a  cliild  shall  look  for 
approval  or  disapproval.  It  is  the  base  fear  of 
the  disapprobation  of  the  "common  herd" 
which  deters  many  a  man  from  stepping  out  of 
the  rank-and-file  and  placing  liimsclf  on  the 
side  of  the  new  and  needed  reform ;  but  it  is  the 
love  of  the  approval  of  the  really  best  people 
which  becomes  an  incentive  for  the  most  earnest 
endeavor  upon  the  part  of  the  human  soul. 
Much,  then,  depends  upon  the  one  to  whose 


154  Instinct  of  Recognition,  or 

opinion  the  child  listens.  The  final  aim  of  the 
mother's  or  teacher's  training  is  to  have  him 
bow  in  complete  obedience  to  the  still,  small 
voice  of  God  within  him;  but  many  rounds  of 
the  ladder  have  to  be  patiently  climbed  before 
this  supreme  strength  of  will  can  be  obtained. 
A  regard  for  public  opinion  is  but  one  stage  of 
the  development  of  the  will-power. 

One  day  I  noticed  that  a  little  girl  who  was 
very  self-willed  was  sewing  the  card  given  her 
in  an  irregular  and  disorderly  manner.  "  Oh, 
Elizabeth,"  I  exclaimed,  "  you  are  not  doing 
that  right!  come  here  and  let  me  show  you  how 
to  do  it."  "  No,"  answered  the  child  in  a  self- 
satisfied  tone,  "  Elizabeth  likes  it  this  way."  I 
saw  that  I  must  appeal  to  the  public  opinion  of 
the  table  of  babies  about  her  in  order  that  I 
might  lead  her  to  voluntarily  undo  the  work. 
So  I  asked  her  to  show  the  card  to  the  other 
children.  As  is  usually  the  case,  public  opin- 
ion decided  in  the  right,  and  the  children  said 
they  did  not  like  it.  "  But  Elizabeth  likes  it," 
persisted  the  child.  "It's  Elizabeth's  card, 
and  she  is  going  to  make  it  this  way."  I  saw 
that  the  little  community  of  her  own  equals  had 
not  sufficient  weight  to  influence  her,  and  from 
ner  manner  I  knew  that  it  was  mere  caprice  on 
her  part.     So  I  said,  "  Come  with  me  and  we 


The  Training  of  the  Will.  155 

will  go  over  to  brother's  table  and  see  what 
they  think  of  it."  We  held  the  card  up  before 
the  next  older  children,  and  I  said  pleasantly, 
"  Children,  what  do  you  think  of  this  card  ?  " 
"  It  is  wrong,"  they  exclaimed,  "  the  soldiers" 
(meaning  the  vertical  lines)  "are  all  tumbling 
down."  By  this  time  the  public  opinion  of  our 
little  community  had  begun  to  have  an  effect, 
and  the  child  turned  to  me  and  exclaimed,  "  It 
is  a  bad,  nasty  card,  and  Elizabeth  will  throw 
it  into  the  fire,"  starting  at  the  same  time 
toward  the  open  grate  in  the  room.  "  Oh,  no, 
my  dear,"  I  exclaimed,  "let's  go  over  to  the 
table  where  the  big  children  are.  Perliaps 
they  can  tell  us  something  to  do  with  it." 
With  that  we  walked  across  the  room  to  the 
table  at  which  my  older  and  better-trained 
children  were  at  work.  After  praising  the 
forms  which  they  were  making  with  their 
sticks,  in  order  to  arouse  witiiin  the  child's 
mind  a  still  higher  appreciation  of  their  judg- 
ment, I  said,  "  Our  little  Elizalieth  has  a  card 
she  wants  to  show  you  and  see  if  any  of  you 
can  tell  her  what  to  do  with  it."  The  card  was 
held  up,  somewhat  unwillingly  this  time,  and 
the  children  without  hesitation  said,  "She  must 
take  out  the  crooked  stitches  and  put  thorn  in 
straight."     The  oldest  boy  at  the  table  added, 


156  Instinct  of  Recognition,  or 

"Come  here,  Elizabeth;  I'll  show  you  how  to 
do  it."  With  that  her  little  chair  was  drawn 
up  beside  his  larger  one,  and  for  ten  minutes 
the  two  patiently  worked  over  the  tangled  card. 
At  the  end  of  that  time  Elizabeth  brought  the 
card  to  me  and  in  triumphant  delight  ex- 
claimed, "  Now  everybody  will  say  that  Eliza- 
beth's card  is  pretty!"  I  had  no  further 
trouble  with  the  child  in  this  particular  direc- 
tion of  taking  out  work  when  wrongly  done. 
This,  of  course,  would  not  be  the  right  method 
of  dealing  with  a  very  sensitive  child.  The 
story  shows  the  need  of  increasing  the  standard 
of  judgment  by  which  the  child  is  to  be 
measured,  in  proportion  to  the  child's  estimate 
of  the  worth  and  value  of  his  own  opinions. 
The  chief  object  in  appealing  to  public  opinion 
is  to  create  a  constantly  advancing  ideal  toward 
which  the  child  is  attracted,  and  thereby  to  gain 
a  constantly  increasing  effort  on  his  part  to 
realize  this  ideal.  The  ideal  is  usually  best 
seen,  as  said  before,  in  the  opinions  expressed 
in  the  presence  of  the  child.  With  this 
thought  in  mind,  what  think  you  of  the  mother 
who  tells  in  the  child's  presence,  with  evident 
amusement,  of  the  naughty  tricks  performed 
by  him  ?  Or  of  the  father  who  pours  into  the 
ear  of  the  admiring   little    listener,  tales   and 


The  Training  of  the  Will.  157 

anecdotes  of  what  a  bad  boy  he  was,  aud  the 
trouble  aud  mischief  which  he  caused ;  or  of  the 
friend  who  places  in  the  hands  of  the  growing 
boy  such  ideals  as  those  portrayed  with 
sprightliness  in  "Peck's  Bad  Boy"? 

But  to  return  to  our  symbolic  game.  The 
knights  come  galloping  into  the  supposed 
court-yard  and  ask  the  mother  the  privilege  of 
seeing  her  good  child.     They  sing: 

"  We  wish  thy  precious  child  to  see. 
They  say  he  is  like  tlie  dove  so  good; 
And  like  the  lamb  of  meriy,  merry  mood. 
Then  wilt  thou  kindly  let  us  meet  him, 
That  tenderly  our  hearts  may  greet  him?" 

The  supposed  mother  then  holds   out   the 

imaginary  child  to  their  view,  and  in  her  turn 

sings: 

"Now  the  precious  child  behold, 
Well  he  merits  love  untold." 

At  this  point  the  knights  take  up  the  song 
with  the  words: 

"Child,  we  give  thee  greetings  rare, 
These  will  sweeten  many  a  care; 
Worth  much  love  the  good  child  is. 
Peace  and  joy  are  ever  his; 
Now  we  will  no  longer  tarry, 
Joy  unto  our  homes  we  carry." 

Here  is  dramatically  pictured  forth  the 
knightly  characters  seeking  and  praising  the 
good  child, — the  mother  with  joy   anil    pride 


158  Instinct  of  Recognition,  or 

holding  him  up  to  their  view,   not  because  of 
any  external  condition  whatsoever,  but  he   i? 
precious  because  he  merits  love.     Nor  is  the 
goodness  left  vague  and  indefinite,   for  in   the 
explanation  at  the  back  of  the  song-book   the 
child  asks  the  mother  what  was  the  song  tlie 
knights    sung    as   they   rode    away,    and   the 
mother  tells  him  that  it  is  a  description  of  a 
good  child.      "Now,  mother,  we  will   listen  to 
the  song  sung  by  the  knights  so  gallant,  gay, 
and  strong,  'Come  children  quickly  come,  and 
hear  the  song  we   sing  of  this  baby  dear.'" 
Then  follows  the  little  song  in  which   are  dis- 
tinctly   brought   out    the    characteristics    of 
activity,     perseverance,     love,    gratitude,    and 
reverence,  all  of  which  are  virtues  which   the 
childish  heart  can  understand.     Thus  the  ideal 
presented  in  this  little  game  is  made   definite 
and  distinct,  and  the  dim  feeling  is  aroused  in 
the  child's  mind  that  such   are  the  characters 
which  the  best  mothers  and  the  gallant  knights 
admire  and  praise,  and  this  ideal   becomes  his 
ideal.     That  these  are    the   impressions   made 
upon    the    child  by    such  games   cannot   be 
doubted  by  any  one  who  has  seen  this  game 
played  in  a  well-organized  Kindergarten ;  but 
testimony  is  not  wanting  of  the  after-effects  of 
such  games.     A  little  girl  was  in  one  of  our 


The  Training  of  the  Will,  159 

Kindergartens  for  two  years,  and  was  after- 
wards taken  to  Europe  by  her  parents  and  re- 
mained away  from  Kindergarten  influence  for 
seven  or  eight  years.  Upon  her  return  to 
America  a  friend  asked  her  what  she  remem- 
bered of  her  Kindergarten  experience.  "Very 
little,"  she  replied;  "I  have  been  so  entirely 
shut  away  from  any  association  with  the 
thought  of  it  that  it  has  nearly  passed  out  of 
my  memory.  Of  course,"  she  added,  '"I  re- 
member some  things."  "What,"  persisted  the 
inquirer,  "do  you  remember  most  distinctly?" 
"Well,  for  one  thing,"  said  she  slowly,  "I  re- 
member a  little  game  we  used  to  play  in  which 
some  knights  came  galloping  into  the  room.  I 
do  not  remember  much  about  the  details  of  the 
game,  but  I  can  recall  even  now  the  great 
waves  of  joy  which  used  to  pass  over  me  as  we 
played  the  part  of  holding  out  the  good  child 
for  the  knights  to  see." 

In  one  lovely  home,  where  the  mother  had 
learned  to  comprehend  the  underlying  thought 
of  this  little  game  and  had  explained  it  to  the 
father,  the  latter  took  upon  himself  the  role  of 
the  knight.  Each  evening  when  he  came  home, 
their  little  boy  ran  out  to  meet  him,  and  the 
father  took  him  up  in  his  arms,  then  turned 
and  asked  the  mother  if  Henry  had  tried  to  be 


160  Instinct  of  Recognition,  or 

a  good  boy  during  the  day.  If  she  replied 
yes,  the  father  and  son  had  a  royal  good  romp 
until  dinner-time.  If  her  reply  was  no,  the 
father  quietly  and  solemnly  set  the  little  fellow 
down  upon  the  floor  and  walked  out  of  the 
room.  So  earnestly  did  the  child  learn  to  look 
forward  to  this  nightly  approval  or  disapproval 
of  his  conduct,  that  he  would  often  stop  in  the 
midst  of  his  play  during  the  day  and  ask  his 
mother  if  he  had  been  good  enough  for  her  to 
say  yes  that  night. 

In  the  second  part  of  the  song  of  "The 
Five  Knights,"  the  knights  again  come  and 
greet  the  mother,  asking  to  see  her  good  child. 
This  time  the  mother  sadly  shakes  her  head 
and  says : 

"Ah,  friendly  knights,  I  grieve  to  say, 
I  cannot  bring  him  to  you  to-day; 
He  cries,  is  so  morose  and  cross, 
That  all  too  small  we  find  the  house." 

The  knights  then  turn,  and  as  they  leave  the 
mother,  they  sing, — 

"  Oh,  such  tidings  give  us  pain; 
We  would  have  sung  a  joyous  strain; 
We'll  ride  away,  we'll  ride  afar. 
To  where  the  good  little  children  are." 

In  this  way  the  child  gets  the  idea  that  the 
best  people  of  the  world  are  attracted  towar- 


The  Training  of  the  Will.  161 

that  which  is  good,  and  fly  from  that  which  is 
evil.  In  fact,  we  need  scarcely  say  of  the  best 
people,  is  it  not  the  virtue  which  is  shown  in 
each  individual  that  causes  him  tx)  be  loved  at 
all?  Is  it  not  the  faults  of  people  about  us 
which  separate  us  from  them  ?  The  sooner  the 
child  learns  the  unifying  effect  of  good,  and  the 
isolating  effect  of  evil  conduct,  the  more  earn- 
estly will  he  strive  to  attain  unto  the  one  and  to 
avoid  the  other.  Censure  is  as  necessary  as 
praise  in  making  definite  the  ideal  set  before 
the  child.  Its  office  should  be  rightly  under- 
stood, however.  The  supposed  child  in  this  song, 
dramatized  by  the  real  child,  gives  pleasure  to 
his  mother  and  the  brave  knights  when  he  is 
good,  and  sorrow  and  pain  when  he  has  done 
wrong.  Thus  comes  to  the  child  the  beginning 
of  the  thought,  that  as  a  man  cannot  live  unto 
himself  alone,  so  too  he  cannot  sin  unto  himself 
alone ;  that  every  deed  has  its  effect  upon  others. 
In  the  third  phase  of  the  song,  the  knights 
again  come  and  inquire  of  the  mother  concern- 
ing her  child.  This  time  she  joyously  replies 
that  her  child  has  become  so  good  that  he  is 
very  dear  to  her,  and  that  she  cannot  spare  him 
to  them.  At  this  the  knights  wave  their  linnds 
in  congratulation  and  trot  swiftly  away.  Here 
we  have  the  final  stage  in  this  progressive 
11 


162  Instinct  of  Recognition,  or 

drama,  illustrating  how  to  train  the  child  by 
means  of  holding  a  beautiful  and  attractive 
ideal  before  him,  Joy,  praise,  love  and  com- 
radeship are  shown  to  have  been  merited  by  the 
good  child;  regret,  sorrow,  pain  and  isolation 
are  shown  to  be  the  consequences  of  wrong- 
doing. Return  of  companionship,  forgiveness 
of  his  wrong-doing,  and  harmony,  can  be 
restored  when  the  child  turns  from  his  wrong- 
doing and  strives  to  do  right.  This  last  point 
is  an  important  one.  It  cannot  be  too  earnestly 
considered.  The  reconciliation  after  the  wrong- 
doing means  much  for  the  future  nearness  of 
the  child  to  the  one  who  has  forgiven  him.  As 
in  this  little  game  the  knights  were  ready  to 
come  again  with  their  welcome  and  approval  as 
soon  as  the  child  was  worthy  of  it,  so  too  should 
the  child  in  real  life  feel  that  it  is  his  own 
wrong-doing  only  which  separates  him  from 
those  he  loves. 

If  you  must  say,  "  You  cannot  come  into 
mamma's  room,"  always  add  '^  until  you  are 
more  courteous."  Never  forget  that  little  word 
"  until  •^''  it  means  that  the  ideal  can  be  restored 
and  the  child  can  again  strive  to  realize  it, 
through  patient,  earnest  endeavor.  There  must 
be  no  failure  of  sympathy  upon  your  part  the 
moment  it  is  asked  for.     In  the  depth  of  isola- 


The  Training  of  fhe  Will  163 

tion  caused  by  wrong-doing,  let  there  be  the 
underlying  feeling  upon  the  part  of  the  child 
which  prompted  the  prodigal  son  to  say,  "  I 
will  arise  and  go  unto  my  father."  This  is  the 
one  hope  which  the  despairing  soul  has.  In  every 
way  let  the  child  feel  that  it  is  his  wrong -doing 
alone  which  causes  the  separation;  that  under- 
neath are  the  everlasting  arms  of  love.  Thus 
will  he  learn  the  meaning  of  the  message  of 
Christ  to  the  world  that  he  came  not  to 
reconcile  God  unto  man,  but  man  unto  God. 
And  little  by  little  will  come  the  realization  that 
free-tvill  is  not  the  liberty  to  do  ichatever  one 
likes,  but  the  power  to  compel  one''s  self  to  obey 
the  laws  of  right,  to  do  what  ought  to  be  done 
in  the  very  face  of  otherwise  overwhelming 
impulse. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


TEE  SOUL. 


THE  INSTINCT  OF  KEVERENCE,    OR   THE   TRAINING 
OP  THE  WORSHIP. 

Rightly  understood,  the  tell-tale  body  pro- 
claims every  mood  of  the  inner  world.  If  a 
child  comes  bounding  forward  with  outstretched 
arms  and  radiant  smile,  the  mother  knows  that 
there  is  working  within  no  conscious  remem- 
brance of  wrong  which  needs  reproof,  no 
thought  of  command  disobeyed.  Let  him 
answer  her  call  with  dragging  step  or  downcast 
eyes,  and  she  knows  that  something  is  wrong; 
that  a  barrier  has  been  raised  between  them. 
In  many  less  pronounced  ways  the  attitude  of 
the  child's  body  and  the  expression  of  his  face 
help  the  mother  instinctively  to  read  what  is 
going  on  within  her  offspring's  mind,  even 
before  he  can  tell  her  in  words  of  his  likes  and 
dislikes,  his  desires  and  emotions.  -If  all 
mothers  knew  that  the  soul  could  be  read  by 
means  of  the  body,  there  would  be  less  misun- 
derstood childhood  and  fewer  great  and  painful 
^aDS  between  parent  and  child. 
164 


The  Training  of  the  Worship.         165 

Here  again  we  find  that  ins ig Jit  proves 
and  makes  strong  the  natural  instinct  of  the 
mother.  Here  again  we  see  that  study,  travel, 
and  breadth  of  culture  can  become  aids  for 
this  highest  work  of  woman,  namely,  child- 
culture.  All  study  of  art  shows  that  the  great 
painters,  sculptors,  poets  and  dramatists,  have 
depicted  certain  inner  states  of  mind  or  soul 
by  similar  attitudes  of  head,  hand  and  body. 
For  example,  the  clasped  hands  denote  entreaty. 
In  Vedder's  illustration  of  Omar  Khayyam's 
Judgment  Scene,  the  Eecording  Angel  is  seen 
above  with  his  Book  of  Judgment,  and  below 
are  seen  the  clasped  hands  of  the  terrified  and 
beseeching  multitude.  No  faces  are  needed  to 
add  to  this  tale  of  despair;  the  hands  alone 
tell  us  the  story,  the  whole  story.  Over  and 
over  again  do  we  find  this  external  bodily 
gesture  made  to  express  the  internal  condition 
of  the  mind. 

One  morning,  in  one  of  our  large  kindergar- 
tens, a  young  and  somewhat  inexperienced 
director  was  trying  to  teach  the  children  a 
new  song  in  which  the  fingers  of  one  hand 
represented  the  pigeons  flying  in  and  out  of 
the  house  made  by  the  other  hand.  One  shy 
little  fellow  did  not  take  part  in  the  dramatic 
representation.       I    saw    from    the    nervous 


166  The  Instinct  of  Reverence,  or 

twisting  and  clasping  of  his  hands  that  it  was 
no  willful  disobedience,  but  shyness  and  dread 
of  being  made  conspicuous  which  prevented 
the  child  from  imitating  the  teacher's  motions. 
Unaccustomed  to  reading  her  children  by  their 
bodily  gestures,  the  young  teacher  turned  to 
the  child  and  said:  "Freddie,  why  do  you 
not  show  how  the  little  birds  fly?"  In  a 
moment  the  two  tiny  hands  were  clasped  in 
entreaty.  Still  the  unseeing  director  did  not 
understand  the  appeal  for  mercy,  but,  with  the 
best  of  intentions,  took  hold  of  the  little  fellow's 
fingers  and  began  to  move  them  for  him.  This 
was  too  much  for  the  child,  and  he  burst  into  a 
flood  of  tears,  which  astonished  the  poor  girl 
who  had  intended  only  loving  help,  but  who 
in  reality  had  dragged  his  young  soul  into  the 
very  publicity  from  which  he  was  pleading  to 
escape. 

The  clenched  hands  denote  the  struggle 
within,  and  great  artists  often  use  them  as  the 
only  marked  sign  of  the  inward  turmoil  which 
the  calm  face  and  strong  will  are  determined 
to  conceal. 

The  open  and  extended  palm,  which  we  see 
in  so  many  of  the  pictures  and  statues  of  the 
saints,  indicates  entire  freedom  from  deceit  or 
concealment,  as  if  the  body  as  well  as  the  lips 


The  TraiJiing  of  ihe  Worship.         167 

were  saying  :  "  Purge  me,  O,  Lord,  cleanse 
me  with  hyssop  that  I  may  be  clean."  Just 
as  surely  do  the  hands  of  a  little  child  tell  us 
of  his  inner  frankness  or  deceit.  Does  not 
the  child  oftentimes  instinctively  put  his 
hands  behind  him  or  nervously  twist  them  into 
the  folds  of  his  dress  or  apron  when  he  is 
being  questioned,  even  though  a  forbidden 
sweet  is  not  noio  in  the  hidden  hand  ?  Many  a 
mother  or  kindergartner  in  a  trying  moment 
could  discover  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  a  child 
by  the  right  understanding  of  this  unconscious 
language  of  his  hands,  and  thus  there  would 
be  avoided  that  sad  catastrophe  of  unjust  accu- 
sation. 

In  the  kinderjjarten  one  morning,  soon  after 
the  entrance  of  a  new  child,  I  asked  the  circle 
of  children  seated  about  me  to  show  me  the 
little  finger  families,  that  we  might  learn  a 
new  song  about  them.  All  the  little  liands 
were  held  up  with  palms  toward  me,  save  the 
one  new  child,  who  in  a  timid,  shy  manner 
held  his  palms  averted.  A  word  was  sufficient 
to  turn  them  into  the  franker  position  which 
the  others  had  taken,  but  in  a  moment  or  two 
they  were  again  turned  away.  After  we  had 
finished  the  exercise  and  the  cliihlreiz  hac. 
gone  to  their   table    for  work,    I  said   to   my 


168  The  Instinct  of  Reverence,  or 

assistant,  "  We  must  watcli  that  new  boy 
carefully.  He  has  too  secretive  a  nature." 
Before  noon  that  day,  as  I  passed  around  the 
table  to  observe  and  commend  the  clay  work 
of  the  different  children,  I  found  none  upon 
his  board.  I  asked  where  it  was,  and  he  made 
no  reply  ;  but  the  child  who  sat  next  to  him 
said,  "He  stuffed  it  all  into  his  pocket."  So 
soon  did  this  secretiveness,  discovered  by  the 
position  of  his  hands,  begin  to  manifest  itself  in 
the  hiding  of  material  which  he  did  not  under- 
stand was  already  his  own. 

In  Leonardo  di  Vinci's  great  picture  of  the 
Last  Supper,  the  character  of  each  of  the  disci- 
ples is  plainly  shown  by  the  hands.  Even 
those  of  Our  Lord  are  made  by  this  master 
painter  to  express  the  two-fold  nature  of  his 
struggle.  The  one  hand  with  down-turned  and 
averted  palm  clearly  says:  "If  it  be  possible, 
let  this  cup  pass  from  me."  The  other,  with 
upturned  and  receptive  palm,  calmly  indicates 
the  words,   "  Not  my  will  but  Thine  be  done." 

The  position  of  the  head  portrays  the  true 
mood  of  the  soul.  The  rapt  and  devout  saint 
who  thinks  not  of  earth  or  of  its  attractions, 
is  represented  with  face  turned  skyward:  the 
penitent  and  humbled  Magdalene  turns  her 
bowed  face  to  the  earth,  and  most  significantly 


The  Training  of  the  Woi'ship.         169 

is  told  the  story  of  repentance,  forgiveness  and 
redemption,  by  that  sin-stained  face  turned 
upward  towards  heaven's  light.  To  me  the 
church  of  the  Madeleine  in  Paris  is  truly  a 
representative  of  the  name  it  bears,  in  that  all 
the  light  within  its  Avindowless  Avails  comes 
from  the  skylight  in  the  roof  above :  it  is  the 
upturned  face  expressed  in  the  architecture  as 
well  as  in  the  paintings  on  the  walls.  The 
mother  or  teacher  who  understands  these  things 
will  quietly  wait  before  disturbing  a  child, 
whose  face  is  thoughtfiilly  turned  toward  the 
cloud,  moon,  or  shining  star,  and  will  not  dare 
to  break  in  upon  the  reverential  mood.  The 
attitude  of  the  body  will  suggest  to  you 
whether  it  is  an  idle  day-dream  in  which  the 
child  is  indulging,  or  a  communion  of  his  little 
soul  with  higher  things.  How  much  may  be 
learned  from  the  childish  head  Avhicli  bows 
before  the  stern  reproof  or  searching  glance! 
The  close  observer  will  notice  that  when 
shame  alone  is  disturbing  a  sensitive  child,  the 
head  droops;  if  with  shame  is  commingled  love 
and  a  desire  for  reconciliation,  the  head  leans 
a  little  to  one  side  as  well  as  downward ;  if  the 
head  is  bowed,  but  averted,  the  conq  nest  is  but 
half  made,  the  sin  is  admitted  but  the  heart 
is  not  won. 


170  The  Instinct  of  Reverence,  or 

The  degree  to  whicli  tlie  soul  can  express 
itself  through  its  body  varies  of  course  with 
different  children.  To  the  true  mother  the 
child's  eyes  are  too  well  known  as  the  open  door 
to  his  soul's  condition  to  need  more  words  from 
me.  Perhaps  no  other  part  of  the  body  speaks 
in  such  a  subtle  manner  of  the  inner  rightness 
or  wrongness  as  the  chest.  It  is  here  that  the 
sense  of  courage,  honor,  and  self-respect,  or 
their  absence,  is  plainly  declared.  What  is  it 
which  has  given  Mr.  Daniel  French's  study  of 
the  Minute  Men  at  Concord  the  power  to  stir 
every  American  heart?  Mildness  and  determi- 
nation sit  upon  the  brow  and  hover  around  the 
closed  lips;  courage  and  suppressed  indigna- 
tion are  shown  in  the  strong  hands ;  alertness 
and  readiness  to  act  upon  the  moment  are  to  be 
read  in  the  position  of  the  body ;  but  the  follow- 
ing immortal  words  are  as  plainly  declared  by 
the  expanded  chest  as  by  the  written  historic 
Declaration  of  Independence: 

"  When,  in  the  course  of  human  events,  it 
becomes  necessary  for  one  people  to  dissolve 
the  political  bands  which  have  connected  them 
with  another,  and  to  assume  among  the  powers 
of  the  earth  the  separate  and  equal  station  to 
which  the  laws  of  nature  and  of  nature's  God 
entitle  them,  a  decent  respect  for  the  opinions 


The  Training  of  the  Worship.         171 

pf  mankind  requires  that  they  should  declare 
the  causes  which  impel  them  to  the  separation. 
"We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident — that 
all  men  are  created  equal;  that  they  are 
endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  iiialien- 
able  rights;  that  among  these  are  life,  liberty, 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness." 

Whoever  has  witnessed  Edwin  Booth's  "Shy- 
lock  "  has  seen  the  character  of  the  sordid,  self- 
debasing  usurer  almost  as  plainly  delineated  by 
the  sunken  chest  as  by  the  words  of  Shake- 
speare. Imagine,  if  you  can,  Uriah  Heap  with 
a  broad,  expanded  chest!  Of  course,  physical 
disability  must  not  be  confounded  with  moral 
unsoundness;  the  former  shows  its  depressing 
symptoms  in  all  of  the  moods  of  the  child,  that 
is,  it  is  permanent;  the  latter  affects  him  only 
temporarily  when  the  sense  of  self-respect  is  at 
low  tide. 

It  was  my  good  fortune  to  meet  once  a  week, 
for  a  year  or  more,  with  a  band  of  earnest 
teachers  of  all  grades.  For  weeks  we  discussed 
what  outer  sign  would  help  us  to  discover 
Avhether  the  unfulfilled  task  of  the  child  was 
due  to  a  physical  disability,  to  mental  disincli- 
nation, or  to  mere  caprice.  With  this  tliought 
in  mind  we  watched  and  studied  our  pupils; 
the  brightness  or  dullness  of  the  eye  was  no 


172  The  Instinct  of  Reverence^  or 

criterion,  as  too  often  an  inward  fever  gave  an 
added  sparkle  to  the  eye,  an  added  flush  to  the 
cheeks ;  the  clearness  of  the  skin  did  not  denote 
always  freshness  and  purity  of  blood,  it 
being  oftentimes  a  matter  of  inheritance.  Indi- 
cation after  indication  was  suggested,  discussed 
and  tested.  Finally,  it  was  agreed  that  the  well 
child  carried  at  all  times  an  active,  expanded 
chest,  except  when  a  sense  of  shame  or  loss  of 
integrity  overpowered  him,  when  the  sunken 
chest  proved  the  certainty  of  wrong  conduct; 
also  that  the  child  whose  physical  state  is 
a  hindrance  to  his  mental  effort  could  be  known 
by  his  sunken  chest  which  never  expanded.  In 
a  word,  that  this  part  of  the  body  rarely  fails 
as  a  sign  by  which  the  thoughtful,  alert  mother 
or  teacher  may  read  moral  rectitude  or  its 
opposite. 

Without  self-respect  there  is  no  possibility  of 
building  up  a  law  within.  A  human  being  who 
has  it  not  must  remain  forever  subject  to  an 
outside  law:  noblesse  oblige  must  be  an  unknown 
power  to  him.  Therefore,  any  marring  of  that 
precious  germ  is  of  incalculable  injury  to  the 
child's  future  stability  and  strength  of  char- 
acter. Let  me  give  you  an  illustration  of  the 
value  of  this  knowledge  of  attitudes  to  those 
who    must    deal   with    that  sensitive  and  jei 


The  Training  of  ihe  Worship.         173 

important  thing,  a  little  child's    self-respect. 
We  were  playing  one  morning  in  Kindergarten 
a  game  which  requires    a  quick  galloping  on 
the  part  of  some  of  the  children  while  the  oth- 
ers remained  sitting.       As  the  horsemen  came 
galloping  by,    one    little    fellow  stuck  out  his 
foot  in  an  attempt  to  interrupt  the  play;    it 
was  his  first  violation  of  the  rule  of  all  our 
games,  which  is  non-interference  with  the  rights 
of   others;   so    I    smiled    and  shook  my  head; 
again  the  horsemen  came  careering  past,  again 
the  little  foot  went  out  to  interrupt  the  gallop ; 
this  time  I  said:     "Charlie,   do  not  do  that,  it 
spoils  our  game."     A  third  time  the  horsemen 
had  to  make  their  charge,  and  a  third  time  the 
obstinate  little  foot  went   out;  this  unmistak- 
ably   was    open,   conscious    wrong- doing,    and 
must    be  effectually  checked  and  at  once.     I 
stopped  the  game  and  said:  "  Children,  we  can- 
not  finish    our    play ;    step  back  to  the  circle ; 
Charlie  has   spoiled  it  for  all  of  us."     There 
was  the  dead    silence    usual  upon  such  infre- 
quent occasions.      All  took  their  places  in  the 
play    circle,  and  all  eyes  were  turned  toward 
Charlie.     The  little  head    began  to  sink;  this 
was  an  indication  of  the  inward  shame  which  I 
intended  he  should  feel,  as  the  laws  of  each  of 
our  games  are  precious  to  us  all  and  the  train- 


174         The  Instinct  of  Reverence,  or 

ing  into  absolute  obedience  to  these  laws  is  one 
of  the  best  things  in  the  Kindergarten ,  but  at 
the  same  time  that  the  little  head  went  down, 
the  chest  began  to  sink,  and  I  saw  that  my 
reproof  had  been  too  great  for  the  little  fellow ; 
his  self-respect  had  been  injured.  In  a  moment 
I  was  on  my  knees  beside  him  with  my  arms 
around  him  ,  the  few  words  of  needed  apology 
were  soon  given  by  him  and  accepted  by  me. 
but  the  chest  did  not  come  up  to  its  natural 
position  until,  when  the  play-time  had  ended, 
I  turned  and  asked  him  to  lead  in  the  march 
back  to  the  seats,  thereby  showing  my  return- 
ing respect  for  him. 

We  have  been  speaking  of  the  aid  which  this 
study  gives  to  our  understanding  of  the  child. 
Let  us  now  turn  to  the  value  of  it  in  helping 
us  to  train  him  aright. 

The  effect  of  the  body  upon  the  mind  is  not 
generally  appreciated.  That  a  sound  mind 
can  work  freely,  a  well-balanced  character 
develop  fully,  only  in  a  sound  body,  is  ad- 
mitted by  all;  but  the  more  subtle  influence 
is  not  so  easily  comprehended.  Of  equal 
importance  is  this  other  side  of  the  question. 
If  mind  or  soul  acts  upon  the  body,  the 
outward  gesture  and  attitude  also  reacts  upon 
the  inward  feeling.     The  artists  of  the  world 


The  Training  of  the  Worship.         175 

have  portrayed  the  former;  the  thinkers  have 
taught  us  the  latter,  and  our  close  study  of  the 
child  verifies  them  both.  The  soul  speaks 
through  the  body,  aud  the  body  in  return 
gives  its  command  to  the  soul.  Try  for  a 
moment  to  think  intently  upon  some  difiicult 
subject  with  your  body  in  a  lazy,  relaxed 
posture,  or  arouse  your  body  to  a  perfectly 
erect  position,  similar  to  the  one  given  us  in 
that  beautiful  portrait  of  the  Queen  Louise  of 
Prussia,  and  see  for  yourself  the  effect  which 
it  produces  upon  you ;  you  can  then  understand 
why  the  military  position  is  obligatory  to  the 
soldier,  the  constant  atiitiide  of  courage 
engenders  the  soldierly  virtue.  What  is  the 
advice  of  the  wide-awake  business  man  to  the 
discouraged  and  faint-hearted  friend  who  comes 
to  him  for  counsel?  "  Hold  up  your  head  and 
be  a  man,"  he  says,  unconsciously  coupling 
the  physical  attitude  with  the  desired  mental 
condition.  Plato,  in  his  "  Republic,"  claims 
that  the  right  training  of  the  body  in  gym- 
nastics, in  time  with  some  rhythmical  music, 
has  an  undoubted  effect  upon  character,  tlio 
gymnastics  tending  to  develop  tlie  spirited 
part  of  man's  nature  and  the  musical  accom- 
paniment toning  this  development  down  to 
gentleness,  but  not  to  effeminacy.     He  adds. 


176  The  Instinct  of  Reverence,  or 

"Those  who  devote  themselves  to  games 
exclusively  become  ruder  than  they  ought  to 
be." 

In  the  second  part  of  "  Wilhelm  Meister," 
Goethe's  master-work  on  education,  the  chil- 
dren in  the  ideal  Province  of  Pedagogy  are 
trained  to  take  one  of  three  attitudes,  accord- 
ing to  their  degree  of  development,  whenever 
an  overseer  or  teacher  passes,  whether  it  be  in 
school  room,  playground  or  field.  The  young- 
est fold  their  arms  crosswise  on  the  breast  and 
look  cheerfully  towards  the  sky;  the  interme- 
diate ones  have  their  arms  behind  them  and 
look  smilingly  upon  the  ground;  the  oldest 
ones  stand  erect  boldly,  with  arms  at  the  side, 
turning  their  heads  to  the  right  and  placing 
themselves  in  a  row  instead  of  remaining  alone 
like  the  others.  Naturally  enough,  Wilhelm 
Meister  inquired  as  to  the  supposed  effect  of 
these  strange  postures  upon  the  children. 
"  Well-bred  children,"  replied  "  The  Three," 
"  possess  a  great  deal.  Nature  has  given  to 
each  everything  which  he  needs  of  home  and 
abundance.  Our  duty  is  to  develop  this. 
Often  it  is  better  developed  by  itself,  but  one 
thing  no  one  brings  into  the  world,  and  yet  it 
is  that  upon  which  depends  everything  through 
which  a  man  becomes  manly  on  every   side. 


The  Training  of  the  Worship.         177 

If  you  can  find  it  out  for  yourself,  speak  out." 
Willielm  bethought  himself  for  a  short  time, 
and  then   shook  his  head.      After  a  suitable 
pause,  they   exclaimed,    "Veneration!"      Wil- 
helm  was  startled.  "Veneration,"  they  repeated, 
"  it  is    wanting   in   all,    perhaps    in    yourself. 
Tou  have  seen  three   kinds  of  gestures:    we 
teach    the  three-fold  veneration.      The  three 
combine  to  form  a  whole,  then  widen   into  the 
highest  power  and  effort.     The  first  is  rever- 
ence for  that   which   is    above   us;    the  arms 
folded  on  the  breast,  the  cheerful  glance  toward 
the  sky.     That  is  precisely  what  we  prescribe 
in  our  untutored  children,    at  the  same  time 
requiring  witness  of  them  that  there  is  a  God 
above  who  reflects  and  reveals  himself   in  our 
parents,  tutors,  and  superiors.     Second,  vene- 
ration for  that  which  is  below  us;    the  hands 
folded  on  the  back  as    if   tied    together,    the 
lowered  smiling  glance  bespeaks  that  we  have 
to  regard  the  earth  Avell  and  cheerfully.      It 
gives  us  the  opportunity  to  maintain  ourselves, 
it    affords    unspeakable    joys    and    it   brings 
desperate  sufferings.        If  one  hurts  oneself, 
whether     intentionally     or     accidentally,     if 
earthly  chance  does  one  any  harm,  lot  that  be 
well  with  all,  for  such  dangers  accompany   ud 
all  our  life  long,  but  from   this  condition   we 
13 


178  The  Instinct  of  Reverence^  or 

deliver  a  pupil  as  soon  as  possible.  Directly 
we  are  convinced  that  the  teachings  of  this 
subject  have  made  a  sufficient  impression  upon 
him,  then  we  bid  him  be  a  man,  look  to  his 
companions  and  guide  himself  with  reference 
to  them.  Now  he  stands  erect,  when  in  union 
with  his  colleagues,  does  he  present  a  front  to 
the  world."  And  in  further  conversation  this 
wonderful  "  Three "  explained  to  Wilhelm 
Meister  that  the  three-fold  gestures  are  to 
impress  the  youth  with  the  three-fold  rever- 
ence, and  lead  to  the  comprehension  of  the 
three  great  stages  of  religion,  namely:  First, 
the  heathen  or  ethical  religion;  second,  the 
philosophical  religion,  which  is  based  upon 
man's  recognition  of  the  worships  of  the  rest 
of  the  universe;  and  finally  the  third,  or 
Christian  religion,  which  recognizes  the  Divine 
even  in  humility  and  poverty,  scorn  and  con- 
tempt, shame  and  misery,  suffering  and  death." 
This,  coming  from  one  of  the  world's  most 
acute  observers  and  deepest  thinkers,  is  a 
strong  verification  of  the  statement  before 
made. 

Froebel,  the  Apostle  of  Childhood,  makes 
use  of  the  same  thought  in  his  "  Mutter  und 
Koselieder,"  when  he  would  help  the  mother 
to  develop  aright  the  sense  of  reverence  in  her 


The  Training  of  the  Worship.         179 

child.  He  knew  well  that  to  develop  a  spirit 
of  reverence  was  to  develop  a  capacity  for 
religion.  In  a  talk  with  the  mother  about  the 
little  song  called  "  Brothers  and  Sisters," 
wherein  the  baby  is  taught  to  slowly  and  softly 
fold  his  little  hands  togetlier,  as  if  the  little 
fingers  were  so  many  children  being  soothed 
to  sleep,  Froebel  says,  "  The  care  of  the  life  of 
a  child's  inner  and  higher  feeling,  disposition 
and  ideas  belongs  certainly  to  the  most  delicate 
and  yet  the  most  important  and  difficult  part 
of  his  nature.  From  it  springs  all  and  develops 
all  that  is  highest  and  noblest  in  the  life  of  the 
individual  and  the  race,  and  ultimately  all 
religious  life  which  is  at  one  with  God  in  dis- 
position, thought  and  deed." 

"When  and  where  does  it  begin?"  he  asks. 
Then  adds,  "  It  is  with  it  as  with  the  germs 
of  plants  and  seeds  in  the  spring;  they  are 
there  long  before  they  are  outwardly  visible. 
So  we  know  not  when  and  where  this  develop- 
ment commences  in  the  human  being.  If  we 
begin  cultivatinof  it  too  soon,  we  make  tlie 
same  mistake  as  by  exposing  seeds  too  soon 
and  too  much  to  the  developing  simlight  and 
nourishing  dampness.  Both  would  injure  the 
tender  germ.  If  we  begin  too  late  or  too 
feebly,  we  are  met  by  the  same  result;  what  i8 


180  The  Instinct  of  Reverence,  or 

to  be  done  then  ?    How  does  this  inner  religious 
life  show  itself?" 

The  disease  which  is  fastening  itself  upon 
the  Christians  of  to-day  is  se?/-activity",  the 
too  great  emphasis  of  what  we  must  do,  too 
little  of  what  God  has  done.  The  bustling 
Sunday-school  superintendent  ;  the  hurried, 
impatient  mother  teaching  her  child  his  cate- 
chism while  tying  his  necktie  for  Sunday- 
school,  are  but  modern  versions  of  the  story  of 
Tantalus,  trying  to  satisfy  infinite  longings 
with  finite  activities.  Much  of  the  well  intended 
primary  Sunday-school  work  loses  half  of  its 
efficiency  from  the  teacher's  not  understand- 
ing that  the  child  must  be  in  gentle,  reveren- 
tial mood  before  he  can  be  in  the  right  religious 
attitude.  The  teacher  should  approach  this 
holiest  temple  of  God  with  reverence.  Is 
there  a  place  holier  than  the  soul  of  a  child? 
"  You,"  said  Froebel,  "  must  keep  holy  the 
being  of  the  little  child.  Protect  it  from 
every  rough  and  rude  impression,  every  touch 
of  the  vulgar ;  a  touch,  a  look,  a  sound,  is  often 
sufficient  to  inflict  savage  wounds.  A  child's 
soul  is  often  more  tender  and  vulnerable  than 
the  finest  or  tenderest  plant."  Surel}'-  this  is 
an  important  question  for  the  mother  who  con- 
siders the  training  of  the  divine  element  in  her 


The  Training  of  the  Worship.         181 

child  as  her  highest  and  holiest  work  in  life. 
Froebel  then  goes  on  to  say  that  there  must  be 
some  necessary  connection  between  the  outside 
bodily  gesture  and  the  inward  soul-attitude. 
"  That  so  slight  a  thing  as  the  gentle  folding  of 
the  hands,  with  an  external  quietness,  impresses 
the  little  soul  with  an  inner  feeling  of  collected 
force  or  unity,  which  is  the  germ  of  that  great 
and  strong  religious  conviction  which  leads  us 
to  speak  of  God  as  the  '  Life  in  whom  we  live 
and  move  and  have  our  being.'  "  He  tells  the 
mother  that  by  the  good  things  which  she  thinks, 
she  can  bind  her  child  to  good  by  many  links : 
in  other  words,  that  the  good  thoughts  within 
^er  heart  tell  themselves  unconsciously  through 
her  bodily  gestures  and  expressions  of  face, 
impressing  silently  the  chilcVs  heart. 

This  is  the  same  thought  which  he  again 
expresses  when  he  says,  "  The  child's  first 
,  ideas  of  prayer  come  to  him  when  an  infant  by 
the  mother's  kneeling  beside  his  crib  in  silent 
prayer;  her  bowed  head  and  kneeling  body 
tell  of  submission  to  and  reverence  for  a  power 
greater  than  herself;  lier  tone  of  voice  when 
she  speaks  of  sacred  things  is  far  more  (ifFect- 
ual  with  the  little  listener  than  tlie  words  she 
says.  Soft,  low,  sacred  music,  some  l)onutifnl 
picture  of  a   sad-faced    Madonna-like    mother 


182  The  Instinct  of  Reverence. 

watching  over  her  sleeping  child,  flood  his 
little  soul  with  reverence."  It  is  this  sense  of 
reverence  which  he  needs  more  than  dogmatic 
or  specific  teaching  at  this  early  period  of  life. 
Oh,  mother!  Does  not  the  thought  that  your 
real  inner  life  inevitably  tells  upon  that  of 
your  child,  rouse  in  you  the  desire  to  live  the 
highest,  noblest  spiritual  life  of  which  you  are 
capable  ? 


CHAPTER    IX. 

THE   INSTINCT   OF   IMITATION,   OR   THE   TRAINING 
OF    THE   FAITH. 

The  instinct  of  imitation  is  one  of  the  most 
important  factors  in  a  child's  education.  This 
instinct  is  universal,  although  the  power  to 
imitate  varies  with  dijfferent  children.  By  uni- 
versal instinct  is  meant  one  which  manifests 
itself  in  all  races  and  conditions,  and  not  one 
which  is  the  result  of  some  peculiarity  of  in- 
heritance or  environment  in  any  one  class. 

Imitation  is  the  unconscious  effort  of  a  child 
to  understand  life,  by  doing  as  the  people 
about  him  are  doing.  It  is  his  natural  impulse 
to  test  the  actions  of  people  about  him.  The 
value  which  the  world  places  upon  this 
line  of  conduct  is  shown  by  the  adage,  "Put 
yourself  in  his  place,"  which  is  often  used 
when  an  appeal  is  made  for  charity  of  judg- 
ment or  even  for  justice.  It  is  only  when  we 
ourselves  imitate  any  line  of  work  that  we  get 
into  real  sympathy  with  other  workers  in  the 
same  direction.  "It  takes  a  hero,"  says  Lea- 
sing, "to  write  the  biography  of  a  hero;"  only 
a  man  of  equal  or  greater  power  can  rightly 
183 


184  The  InsUnd  of  Imiiaiion,  or 

understand  the  hero.  Christ  applied  this  test 
when  He  told  His  disciples  that  they  could 
know  the  will  of  His  father  in  heaven  by  doing 
it.  We  shall  find  that  this  instinct  is  used  as 
an  aid  in  human  affairs,  from  the  teaching  of 
the  tiny  babe  to  wave  his  hand,  "By-by,"  on 
through  all  intermediate  efforts  of  mankind,  to 
that  class  which  takes  as  its  ideal  the  highest 
injunction  given  to  man,  "Be  ye  therefore  per- 
fect, even  as  your  Father  which  is  in  Heaven 
is  perfect." 

We  see  the  manifestation  of  this  inborn  im- 
pulse in  children  of  all  stages  of  growth.  The 
child  of  two  years  is  filled  with  delight  when 
his  mother  teaches  him  to  say  "Bow-wow"  like 
the  dog,  or  "Moo-moo"  like  the  cow,  or  shows 
him  how  to  swing  his  ball  like  a  bell,  or  to 
make  it  spring  like  a  cat.  The  girl  of  the  same 
age,  or  a  little  older ;  will  nurse  her  doll  and  ten- 
derly sing  it  to  sleep,  or  shake  it  and  scold  it, 
according  to  the  treatment  she  has  seen  given 
to  children  by  mother  or  nurse.  Often  in  my 
twilight  walks  I  have  seen  the  various  activi- 
ties of  a  great  city  mirrored  in  the  imitative 
play  of  the  street  children.  Here  is  a  mere 
speck  of  humanity,  toddling  along  with  a  di- 
lapidated toy  wagon  with  stray  bits  of  wood  in 
it,  and  calling  in  a  high   childish  treble  some 


The  Training  of  the  Faith.  185 

indistinguisliable  words  which  an  older  sister 
explains  as  intended  for,  "Kindling  for  sale." 
There,  rushing  up  the  street,  comes  a  boyish 
form,  with  arms  swinging,  and  voice  shouting 
rapidly,  "Lang,  lang,  lang,  lang!"  and  the  im- 
aginary fire-engine  has  flashed  by.  Again,  if 
it  be  near  election  time  one  may  meet  a  flaring 
torch-light  procession  consisting  perhaps  of 
but  three  small  boys;  the  torch-lights  may  be 
an  old  broom,  a  picket  from  a  fence,  and  a 
crooked  stick,  still  the  commanding  spirit  is 
there,  usually  imitating  a  drum  major,  and  the 
loyal  legions  are  marching  close  behind  him 
as  if  inspired  by  the  strongest  party  feeling. 
In  yonder  vacant  lot  a  handful  of  boys  are 
stirring  up  the  feeble  blaze  of  a  bonfire,  zeal- 
ously adding  to  the  flame  such  stray  fagots  and 
shingles  as  the  neighborhood  affords;  listen  to 
their  talk,  and  you  will  perceive  that  some  em- 
bryo Daniel  Boone  among  them  is  carrying 
out  his  day-dream,  and  has  led  his  comrades 
into  the  hardships  of  pioneer  life  in  as  exact 
an  imitation  of  the  hero  of  some  tale  as  ho  can 
attain  unto.  The  real  or  ideal  world  in  Avhich 
these  children's  thoughts  live  is  going  on  in 
mimic  representation  of  the  older  and  fuller 
life  around  them.  Sad  is  the  story  which  tlie 
student  of  childhood  reads  in  the  tell-tale  play 


1:8^        The  Insiind  of  Imitation^  or 

of  children  in  the  poorer  districts.  There  is 
the  drunkard  who  is  unwillingly  reeling  home, 
escorted  by  a  would-be  policeman;  here  is  the 
daring  robber  who  can  outrun  or  outwit  the 
pursuing  officers  of  justice,  for  which  over- 
reaching of  the  law  he  receives  the  vociferous 
applause  of  his  companions.  A  five  o'clock 
morning  walk  in  one  district  showed  me  three 
wrecks  of  womanhood  standing  with  dejected 
lassitude,  waiting  for  the  low  groggeries  to 
open  their  doors  to  them.  An  evening  ramble 
over  the  same  ground  presented  a  score  of  rag- 
ged little  girls  playing  with  zest  the  part  of 
scolding  and  threatening  mothers,  belaboring 
their  children,  who  in  turn  squirmed  and 
twisted,  cried  and  begged  for  mercy.  A  mother 
needs  but  to  watch  the  unguarded  play  of  her 
own  nursery  to  see  copied  the  gracious  manner 
of  some  visitor,  the  sincere  welcome  from  the 
kindly  hostess,  the  wise  remark  of  the  school- 
teacher, the  courtesy  bestowed  upon  the  milk- 
man or  grocer's  boy,  or  oftentimes  the  opposite 
of  all  this — the  affectation  of  the  visitor,  the  in- 
sincere welcome  of  the  unwilling  hostess,  the 
petulant  reproof  of  the  irritated  school-teacher, 
the  lack  of  courtesy  to  the  tradesman.  The 
child  is  but  learning  the  life  about  him,   and 


The  Training  of  the  Faith.  187 

by  imitating  it  he  comes  into  close  sympathy 
with  it. 

The  kindergarten  games  are  based  upon  this 
instinct  of  imitation  and  its  reaction  upon 
character.  In  the  game  called  "Bird's  Nest," 
two  children  act  the  part  of  father-bird  and 
mother-bird,  and  others  take  the  part  of  bird- 
lings  in  the  nest.  The  former  prepare  the  nest 
and  feed  the  baby  birds,  and  finally  teach  them 
how  to  fly.  I  think  no  one  could  witness  this 
game  and  not  feel  that  the  parental  love  was 
being  surely  and  rightly  trained,  and  that  no 
amount  of  word  explanation  could  give  the 
child  as  sympathetic  an  understanding  of  the 
relationship  between  parent  and  offspring  as  is 
established  by  such  simple  imitative  play,  "We 
have  another  game  in  which  several  children, 
each  with  his  hands  upon  the  hips  of  the  chikl 
in  front  of  him,  creep  along  the  floor,  in  imita- 
tion of  a  worm,  until  finally  they  curl  them- 
selves up  into  a  cocoon  which  lies  quite  still 
upon  the  floor,  while  the  rest  of  the  children 
sing  "Good-bye,  till  you  come  out  a  butterfly." 
Then  comes  a  pause  in  which  there  is  some- 
times represented  rain  or  wind,  or  other  phases 
of  the  weather,  through  which  the  cocoon  re- 
mains undisturbed.  When  the  song  takes  up 
the  words,  "Oh,  there  it  is!     Oh,  see  it  fly,  a 


188  The  Instinct  of  Imitation,  or 

lovely,  lovely  butterfly,"  the  head  child  creeps 
out  and  on  light  tiptoe,  with  arms  waving  in  the 
air,  flits  about  the  room  in  imitation  of  a  but- 
terfly. A  morning  or  two  after  the  introduc- 
tion of  this  game  into  my  Kindergarten,  a 
child  full  of  life  and  animal  spirits  came  run- 
ning to  meet  me  with  a  face  which  proclaimed 
some  good  news  that  he  was  eager  to  tell.  He 
began,  "I  saw  a  truly  little  worm  this  morn- 
"ing."  "Did  you?  Did  you  watch  him  crawl?" 
"Yes,  and  I  picked  him  up  and  put  him  over 
into  a  yard,  so  he  wouldn't  get  stepped  on, 
cause  I  kuowed  what  a  nice  butterfly  he  might 
be  some  day!"  All  the  glow  of  intense  and 
tender  sympathy  was  in  his  face  and  voice;  he 
was  indeed  at  one  with  God's  creation;  the 
worm  and  he  had  become  brothers,  through  his 
having  imitated  its  form  of  activity.  As  I 
looked  down  into  his  soul-lit  eyes,  I  wondered 
if  this  childish  sympathy  would  not  some  day 
help  him  to  save,  for  the  sake  of  the  glorious 
possibilities  which  lie  in  each  of  them,  the  lit- 
tle worms  of  humanity  which  crawl  about  the 
streets  and  gutters  of  our  large  cities.  In  an- 
other game,  in  which  one  or  two  of  the  chil- 
dren imitate  scissor-grinders,  and  the  others 
the  owners  of  the  scissors  and  knives  that  need 
repairing,  we  are  accustomed  not  only  to  play 


The  Training  of  the  Faith.  189 

that  we  pay  the  household  benefactors,  but 
usually  thank  them  quite  courteously  for  their 
services.  At  one  time  I  called  in  a  real  scis- 
sors-grinder, and  had  him  sharpen  and  tighten 
some  scissors,  in  order  that  the  children  miirht 
see  the  operation  and  the  more  perfectly  imi- 
tate it.  After  he  had  completed  his  work,  I 
paid  him  his  money  and  opened  the  door  for 
him  to  go  out,  when  one  little  girl  exclaimed 
in  astonishment,  "Why,  you  forgot  to  ihank 
him,  too!"  She  had  in  play  been  a  scissors- 
grinder,  and  knew  that  recognition  was  due  as 
well  as  money. 

The  parts  enacted  in  all  games  of  the  Kin- 
dergarten are  of  an  ennobling  kind.  The  at- 
traction which  the  role  of  the  wild  and  reckless 
robber,  who  places  himself  outside  the  pale  of 
the  law,  has  for  the  child,  is  changed  in  the 
Kindergarten  to  a  higher  phase  of  the  same 
daring  spirit — for  example,  that  of  the  brave 
and  self-controlling  knight,  who  is  above  law. 
All  that  is  beautiful  in  nature — birds,  bees, 
flowers,  running  water,  fishes,  oven  the  stars 
themselves — 'is  personified  by  the  children ;  all 
that  is  useful  or  noble  among  the  activities  of 
man — the  farmer,  the  miller,  the  baker,  the 
cobbler,  the  cooper,  the  grimy  blacksmith  or  the 
lordly  mayor  of  a  city — is  reproduced  in  childish 


190  The  Instinct  of  Imitatimi,  or 

play  in  the  Kindergarten.  The  children's 
hearts  are  put  into  harmony  with  all  that  ex- 
ists, save  wrong  g^lone.  One  year  my  own 
study  was  concentrated  upon  Homer,  and,  as  is 
natural  with  the  true  Kindergartner,  that  which 
delighted  me  was  made  into  childish  story  and 
given  again  to  my  children.  We  had  stories 
of  the  young  Achilles,  who,  though  so  strong 
and  brave,  could  yet  control  his  temper,  and  at 
the  bidding  of  the  goddess  Pallas  Athene  could 
put  up  his  sword  and  leave  the  angry  Agamem- 
non, Thrilled  and  enraptured,  the  children 
listened  to  the  story  of  the  tender  and  true 
Hector,  who  could  put  aside  his  baby  boy  and 
leave  his  wife  that  he  might  go  and  defend  his 
country.  With  an  interest  akin  to  that  of  the 
child-race  to  whom  the  story  was  first  sung, 
they  listened  to  the  wise  Ulysses  and  his  plans 
for  capture  of  the  Trojan  city  and  the  rescue 
of  beautiful  Helen ;  truly  were  our  days  heroic, 
proving  to  me  that  all  really  high  and  great 
literature  holds  that  which  is  wholesome  and 
good  for  the  little  child,  when  one  knows  how 
to  give  it  aright.  Truth  is  always  helpful  if 
wisely  given.  Great  books  live  through  cen- 
turies of  time  because  of  their  authors'  insight 
into  truth. 

Over  and  over  again  did  my  children  ask  for 


The  Training  of  the  Faith.  191 

the  stories  of  those  old  Greek  heroes.  At  last 
a  child  said,  "Let's  play  Troy!"  "How  can 
we?"  said  I.  "Oh,  don't  you  see?"  was  the 
ready  answer.  "The  chairs  can  be  the  walls 
of  Troy,  just  so,"  (arranging  them  in  a  circle, 
backs  turned  outward,)  "this  table  with  four 
legs  can  be  the  horse,  ever  so  many  of  us  can 
get  in  under  it  and  be  the  Greek  soldiers 
while  the  rest  can  push  us  into  the  city,  then 
we  can  get  the  beautiful  Helen  and  take  her 
home."  So  eager  were  all  to  attempt  the 
dramatizing  of  the  stories  told,  that  chairs  and 
tables  were  soon  arranged,  and  the  various 
names  of  the  heroes  to  be  represented  were  se- 
lected. One  chose  to  be  the  strong  Acliilles, 
another  the  good  Diomed,  whom  the  gods  helped 
in  the  fight;  another  was  Ajax,  the  brave; 
another  was  Hector,  and  so  on,  until  all  the 
more  heroic  characters  were  chosen.  The  beau- 
tiful Helen  was  to  be  represented  by  a  dear 
little  fair-haired  girl  of  four,  a  favorite  of  all. 
To  test  them  I  said:  "Where  is  Prince  Paris? 
Who  will  be  Prince  Paris?"  There  was  a 
dead  silence;  then  one  boy  of  six,  in 
scornful  astonishment  exclaimed:  "Wliy, 
nobody  wants  to  be  him. — he  was  a  bad, 
selfish  man!"  "Well,"  said  I,  "the  tongs  can 
be  Paris,"  and  from   that  time  forward  when- 


192  The  Instinct  of  Imitation,  or 

ever  they  cared  to  play  their  improvisation  of 
the  old  Greek  poem  the  royal  Helen  was  gravely 
led  into  the  walled  city  of  Troy,  with  the  ton^s 
keeping  step  at  her  side,  as  a  fit  representa- 
tion of  the  inner  ugliness  of  weak  and  profli- 
gate young  princes.  I  merely  relate  this  inci- 
dent to  show  that  when  children  have  been  led 
to  represent  the  good  and  true,  they  do  not 
wish  to  play  a  baser  part.  I  firmly  believe  the 
school  of  the  future  will  see  the  noisy,  boister- 
ous, lawless  "recess^'  of  the  primary  depart- 
ments replaced  by  lively,  active  impersona- 
tions of  historic  scenes,  or  of  the  early  life  of 
our  own  country,  which  the  children  are  be- 
ginning to  learn.  Playing  these  heroic  parts 
strengthens  the  heroic  element  within,  and  aids 
in  the  building  of  that  inner  wall  without 
which  no  child  is  safe. 

That  a  mother  may  know  how  she  can 
rightly  begin  the  religious  as  well  as  the  secu- 
lar training  of  her  child,  Froebel  uses  the 
following  incident,  which  is  an  example  of  this 
instinct  of  imitation:  A  child  is  taken  out  for 
an  airing  on  a  windy  day,  and  notices,  as  he 
naturally  would  by  the  law  of  recognition,  the 
moving  objects  about  him;  among  them  a 
weathervane,  a  very  common  object  in  Ger- 
tnany.     He  sees  that  it  moves  from   side  to 


The  Training  of  the  Faith.  193 

side,  and  instinctively  imitates  it  so  that  he 
may  understand  it.  The  mother,  whose  in- 
sight tells  her  that  this  is  a  critical  moment  in 
the  child's  life,  playfully  aids  him  in  his  at- 
tempt to  turn  his  hand  upon  his  wrist  as  the 
weathervane  turns  upon  the  rod,  and  sings 
some  such  ditty  as  this: 

"  As  the  cock  upon  the  tower 

Turns  in  wind  and  storm  and  shower, 

So  my  baby's  hand  is  bending. 

And  his  pleasure  has  no  ending." 
To  show  the  deep  meaning  which  lies  in 
childish  play,  Froebel  has  used  an  incident  of 
common  everyday  life  for  each  song  in  his 
"Mutter  und  Koselieder,"  carefully  choosing 
those  which  are  the  most  helpful  to  the  moth- 
er. The  earnest  student  will  find  imbedded 
in  each  incident  a  lesson  for  the  child  which 
may  be  eternal  in  its  influence  upon  him.  Thus, 
in  this  seemingly  insignificant  attempt  to  imi- 
tate the  weathervane,  Froebel,  Avith  his  proph- 
et's eye,  sees  that  the  child  is  attempting  to 
find  the  invisible  cause  back  of  the  visible  mov- 
ing object;  sees,  too,  that  it  is  the  mother's 
opportunity  to  begin  to  impress  upon  him  the 
great  lesson  that  behind  all  visible  manifesta- 
tions of  life  is  a  great  Invisible  Power.  Sci- 
ence may  call  it  Force;  Art  may  call  it  JLir- 
monyj  Philosophy  may  call  it    World  Order; 

IS 


194  The  Instinct  of  Imitation,  or 

\^vaiiou8  religions  have  called  it  God,  but 
Christianity  calls  it  ^' Our  Father. ^^  This  is  an 
important  moment  in  a  child's  life,  this  first 
groping  after  the  unseen.  Are  not  the  great, 
the  powerful,  the  lasting  things  of  life  all  in- 

I  visible?  To  again  turn  to  nature  for  illustra- 
tions, the  great  attractive  and  repulsive  forces 
have  thrown  up  the  vast  mountain  ranges 
and  cleft  them  in  twain;  gravitation  has 
settled  their  crumbling  fragments  into  level 
plains,  and  caused  the  water-courses  to  sweep 
in  given  directions;  capillary  attraction  has 
drawn  the  water  up  into  the  seed  cells  and 
caused  plant  life  to  germinate  and  vegetation 
to  cover  the  plains;  chemical  action  and  assim- 
ilation have  changed  vegetable  and  animal 
food  into  human  blood;  appetites  have  caused 
the  human  being  to  seek  food  and  shelter  and 
the  opportunity  to  propagate  his  kind ;  parent- 
al instinct  has  given  rise  to  family  life ;  public 
sentiment  has  maintained  the  sanctity  of  the 
marriage  tie  and  the  safety  of  family  posses- 
sions; business  credit  has  made  trade  life  pos- 
sible ;  patriotism  has  banded  these  communi- 
ties of  civic  life  into  national  life:  religion  is 
yet  to  unify  the  nations  of  the  earth  into  one 
common  brotherhood.  All  these  are  invisible 
forces.     What  is  the  tribute  paid  to  character, 


The  Training  of  the  Faith.  195 

over  and  above  wealth  and  beauty,  but  a  trib- 
ute to  the  unseen?  Without  friendship,  sym- 
pathy, love,  aspiration,  ideality,  what  would 
life  be  worth  ?  No  wonder  that  he  who  lives 
only  in  the  visible,  tangible  things  of  this 
world  asks  the  question:  "Is  life  worth  living?" 
Fill  a  soul  with  the  realization  of  the  invisi- 
ble, and  the  question  needs  no  answer;  that 
soul  knows  that  life  is  worth  living.  Why 
are  the  battles  with  doubt,  the  struggles  with 
death,  the  agonies  of  disgrace,  so  awful,  so 
terrible,  so  soul-wrecking?  Is  it  not  that  the 
visible  side  of  life  has  gained  an  undue  foot- 
hold in  the  sufferer's  mind?  Fill  a  life  with 
noble  deeds,  with  the  joy  that  arises  from  un- 
selfish activity,  and  the  scales  will  re-adjust 
themselves,  the  "light  afflictions  will  be  seen 
to  work  out  a  far  more  and  exceeding  weight 
of  glory." 

Froebel,  believing,  as  he  himself  expresses 
it,  that  "these  first  impressions  are  the  root 
fibres  of  the  child's  understanding  which  is 
developed  later,"  calls  the  mother's  attention 
to  this  early  interest  in  moving  things  mani- 
fested by  the  child,  and  tolls  her  that  by  aid- 
ing his  attempt  to  imitate  the  movomo-nts  of 
external  objects,  like  the  weathorvane,  she 
helps  him  to  understand  them,  and   t<i  know 


196  The  Insiinct  of  Imiiation,  or 

that  as  an  unseen  force  in  him  turns  his  hand 
so  an  unseen  force  must  turn  the  attractive 
weathervane.  This  knowledge  Froebel  woukl 
have  her  aid  by  word  and  song ;  for  long  before 
a  baby  can  distinguish  words,  much  less  un- 
derstand them,  he  gains  impressions  of  his 
mother's  meaning  by  repeated  association  of 
word  and  act.  That  the  little  thinker  does  see 
that  like  effects  are  produced  by  like  causes,  is 
evident  to  anyone  who  has  made  a  study  of 
children.  The  lisping  two-year-old  baby  in 
the  family  of  a  friend  of  mine  was  taught  by 
the  older  children  to  solemnly  bow  his  head  up 
and  down  several  times  to  each  person  present, 
when  he  was  brought  into  the  breakfast  room, 
and  to  attempt  to  say:  "How  do  you  do?"  with 
each  ceremonious  bending  of  the  little  head. 
The  effect  was  absurdly  droll  to  the  other 
children,  who  with  like  solemnity  would  slowly 
and  repeatedly  return  the  salutation.  One 
breezy  morning  he  chanced  to  be  left  alone 
upon  the  veranda.  The  branches  of  the  maple 
tree  in  front  of  the  house  were  slowly  sway- 
ing up  and  down,  and  soon  attracted  his  atten- 
tion. With  puzzled  interest  he  watched  them 
for  a  short  time;  then  a  light  broke  over  his 
face,  and  he  began  to  bow  his  head  in  like 
manner,  and  to  say  "How-do!  How-do!"  He 


The  Training  of  the  Faith.  197 

had  logically  and  to  his  satisfaction  solved  the 
mystery  ;  the  outside  world  was  giving  him  a 
morning  greeting.  Another  friend  was  walk- 
ing along  a  street  in  a  city  with  her  child  of 
three  years.  As  they  approached  a  railway 
crossing,  an  engine  passed.  "Mamma,  "  said 
the  child,  "what  makes  the  euoriue  jjo  so  fast?" 
The  mother  explained,  as  well  as  she  could, 
that  it  was  the  steam  inside  of  it  which  caused 
its  rapid  motion,  and  asked  him  if  he  did  not 
see  the  clouds  of  white  steam  coming  out  of  the 
top  of  the  smoke-stack.  After  walking  a  block  or 
two  farther,  a  girl  ran  swiftly  across  the  street; 
the  little  investigator  looked  up  questioniiigly 
into  the  mother's  face,  and  said,  "Mamma,  I 
didn't  see  no  white  steam  coming  out  of  the 
little  girl's  head," — inferring  that  if  steam 
caused  one  thing  to  pass  rapidly  across  his  path, 
it  must  cause  another  like  rapid  motion.  That 
children's  minds  attempt  to  work  logically, 
needs  no  other  proof  than  to  watch  their  gram- 
matical errors,  two-thirds  of  which  are  at- 
tempts to  make  their  native  tongue  logical. 

In  the  childhood  of  the  workl,  when  men 
tried  to  express  their  ideas  of  God,  the  first 
characteristic  recognized  and  represented  was 
power.  So,  too,  we  see  that  the  chikl's  first 
recognition  of  the   unseen  is  ordinarily   the 


198  The  Instinct  of  Imitation,  or 

force  of  the  wind.  With  what  delight  do  all 
children,  when  out  on  a  windy  day,  test  this 
manifestation!  "See!"  exclaimed  a  little  child, 
"the  wind  can  make  everything  do  as  it  likes. 
Where  does  it  come  from?"  Each  mother  has 
had  like  questions  eagerly  put  to  her.  "Mamma, 
what  makes  the  smoke  go  up?"  "Mamma,  what 
makes  the  trees  grow?"  Thoughtful,  indeed, 
should  be  the  answer  given,  for  it  is  the 
searching  of  the  young  soul  after  the  unseen 
power.  Then  is  the  mother's  best  opportunity 
for  developing  a  reverence  for  the  Great  Un- 
seen, bearing  in  mind  always  that  increased 

I  reverence  is  increased  capacity  for  religion. 
So  great  and  manifold  are  the  opportunities 
afforded  by  nature  for  such  lessons,  that  the 
home  and  the  kindergarten  should  bring  as 
much  of  the  outdoor  life  as  they  can  to  the 
town-imprisoned  child.  Right  education,  in 
the  largest  sense  of  the  word,  cannot  go  on  un- 
less that  great  teacher,  Dame  Nature,  is  em- 
ployed with  her  gloriously  illuminated  text- 
books of  field  and  forest,  of  sea  and  sky.  From 
her  the  child  should  learn  its  cradle-hymn  of 
whispering  breeze,  its  nursery-song  of  run- 
ning brooks,  its  childhood's  chant  from  throat 
of  bird  and  hum  of  bees,  in  order  that  maturer 

/    life  may  catch  the  grander,  fuller  harmonies, 


The  Training  of  the  Faith.  199 

wliicli  can  come  only  to  well-developed,  rever- 
ent natures,  who  are  ready  to  worship  God  in 
truth.  The  study  of  history  shows  us  that  the 
battle  is  not  always  to  the  strong,  nor  the  race 
unto  the  swift.  In  olden  times  the  forms  of 
gods  and  goddesses  were  seen  to  fight  first  up- 
on this  side  and  then  upon  that.  Old  Homer 
tells  us  that  "  The  shout  of  Juno  filled  the 
Greeks  with  courage,  and  caused  dismay  to 
spread  throughout  the  Trojan  ranks."  Through 
all  history  an  invisible  power  has  been  felt, 
working  for  victory  or  defeat,  until  in  our  own 
times  a  Frederick  Douglass  could  exclaim:  "One 
with  God  is  a  majority!"  We  scarcely  need  to 
turn  to  Scripture,  the  climax  of  whose  revela- 
tion is  summed  up  in  these  words:  "  God  is  a 
spirit,  and  they  that  worship  him  must  worship 
him  in  spirit  and  in  truth." 

In  speaking  of  social  contact  with  others, 
Froebel  says:  "There  is  something  else  which 
early  awakens  in  your  child  a  respect  for 
goodness,  and  a  feeling  of  emulation  and  as- 
piration to  attain  unto  goodness, — that  is  to 
say,  to  he  good.  These  feelings  are  aroused  in 
him,  not  by  the  respect  and  acknowledgment 
which  you  show  to  goodness  in  the  ahslraof, 
but  by  the  amount  which  you  show  to  good- 
nees  in  others  around  yon;  every  sign  of   re- 


200  The  Insiinet  of  Tmiiafion,  or 

spect  shown  to  others,  which  appears  to  the 
child  jiist  and  merited,  and  above  all  attainable 
by  effort,  spurs  him  on  by  awakening  a  gener- 
ous emulation."  The  standard  of  character 
which  the  child  will  strive  to  attain  to  will  be 
that  of  the  people  whom  he  meets  in  his  home. 
Let  the  child  see  that  in  dress  it  is  the  suita- 
bility, both  as  to  occasion  and  size  of 
purse,  rather  than  the  beauty  or  richness  of 
material,  which  is  to  be  emphasized.  In  gifts, 
let  it  be  the  pleasure  given,  instead  of  the 
price  of  the  present,  which  is  mentioned.  In 
charities,  let  it  be  the  childish  effort  to  do  and 
to  give,  rather  than  any  sum  of  money  given 
by  the  parent  in  the  child's  name.  In  school 
work,  let  it  be  the  effort  put  forth  and  the  real 
mastery  of  the  point  in  hand,  rather  than  the 
per  cent,  gained,  which  is  praised.  In  science- 
lessons  with  a  little  child,  such  books  as  Hook- 
er's "Child's  Book  of  Nature"  are  of  inestima- 
ble value.  Not  only  are  the  facts  told,  but  that 
wonderful  side  of  science  which  is  beyond  all 
explanation  is  always  present.  In  story-tell- 
ing, avoid  moralizing,  but  emphasize  the  in- 
visible power  instead  of  the  visible  manifesta- 
tion. Let  me  illustrate  with  a  story,  always  a 
favorite  in  my  own  kindergarten: 

Once  upon  a  time,  in  the  middle  of  a  small 


The  Training  of  flw  Faith,  201 

village,  by  the  side  of  the  great  oceau,  there 
stood  a  little  stone  church ;  on  the  top  of  the 
church  stood  a  tall  spire;  on  the  top  of  the 
spire  stood  a  gilded  weathervane.  Most  of  the 
men  of  the  villaoje  earned  a  livinor  for  them- 
selves  and  their  wives  and  little  ones  by  goiug 
out  in  sail -boats  to  the  deep  waters  of  the  sea, 
and  catching  fish,  which  they  took  to  a  neigh- 
boring city  and  sold  for  money.  Each  morn- 
ing these  fishermen  would  come  out  of  their 
huts,  and,  shading  their  eyes  from  the  bright 
sun,  would  look  up  at  the  gilded  weathervane 
on  the  tall  steeple  of  the  little  stone  church.  If 
it  turned  towards  the  sea,  they  knew  that  the 
wind  was  favorable  and  would  fill  their  sails, 
and  would  help  them  to  got  out  to  the  deep 
water  where  there  was  good  fishing.  If,  hcnv- 
ever,  the  weathervane  turned  towards  the  land, 
they  knew  that  the  mighty  wind  was  blowing 
away  from  the  ocean,  and  that  it  would  be  use- 
less to  try  to  get  out  that  day.  So  they  would  turn 
their  boats  upside  down  and  stop  up  the  leaks 
which  had  begun  to  let  in  the  water,  or  they 
would  otherwise  occupy  themselves  on  land 
until  the  wind  changed.  The  little  gilded 
weathervane  noticed  that  each  day  the  fisher- 
men looked  up  to  him  to  see  whether  he  point- 
ed out  to  the  sea  or  in  towards  the  land,  and  that 


202  The  Instinct  of  Imitation,  or 

they  seemed  to  obey  his  slightest  direction ;  so 
he  began  to  feel  that  he  was  the  most  impor- 
tant thing  in  the  village.  Therefore,  one  night 
when  the  great  wind  came  rushing  down  from 
the  high  mountain-tops  and  over  the  hills  and 
plains,  and  reached  the  little  weathervane,  it 
said,  in  a  deep,  strong  whisper,  "Turn,  turn  to 
the  sea."  "No,"  said  the  little  weathervane,  "I 
am  not  going  to  mind  you  any  longer.  I  am 
the  most  important  thing  in  this  village;  why 
should  I  mind  you  ?  I  shall  turn  which  way  I 
please."  The  great  strong  wind  blew  stronger 
still  ;  there  came  a  cracking,  snapping  noise, 
and  in  a  moment  more  the  little  gilded  weath- 
ervane was  lying  broken  on  the  ground  below, 
and  the  mighty  wind  had  swept  far  out  on  the 
ocean.  The  next  morning  when  the  fishermen 
came  out,  they  looked  as  usual  to  the  top  of  the 
church  spire;  but  the  little  weathervane  was 
gone.  So  then  they  looked  at  the  boughs  of  the 
trees,  and  saw  that  they  were  all  pointing  to- 
wards the  deep  waters  of  the  ocean.  Then  they 
got  into  their  boats  and  went  off  to  fish,  and 
the  foolish  weathervane  was  left  unnoticed  on 
the  ground." 

As  we  never  leave  a  story  with  a  sad  end- 
ing, because  the  effect  upon  the  child  is  un- 
wholesome,  we   usually  add   that   the    sexton 


The  Training  of  the  Faith.  203 

came  along  by  and  by,  and  picked  up  the  little 
weatliervane,  mended  it  as  best  he  could,  and 
after  a  few  days  put  it  on  the  top  of  the  steeple 
again,  and  that  forever  after  the  gilded  weath- 
ervane  was  very  glad  to  be  of  use  by  showing 
the  fishermen  which  way  the  great  wind  was 
blowing.  Here  the  story  ends.  No  moral  is 
pointed  out.  The  invisible  soul  within  such 
stories,  which  has  caused  them  to  be  handed 
down  from  generation  to  generation,  will  speak 
of  itself  to  the  child  in  the  exact  degree  that  he 
is  ready  to  comprehend  it,  and  will  make  him 
feel  that  the  great  invisible  cause  is  more  thao 
any  special  manifestation,  no  matter  how  prom- 
inent. In  a  dim  way  at  fii'st,  it  will  show  him 
that  the  importance  of  any  life  comes  not  from 
its  prominence,  but  from  its  usefulness.  Such 
truths  are  life's  great  lessons,  and  it  lies  in  our 
power  to  give  them  to  the  child. 

The  problem  before  every  earnest  mother  is 
how  to  so  train  her  child  that  the  unseen  things 
in  life  shall  be  as  real  to  him  as  the  seen.  First 
of  all  she  must  fill  herself  with  this  truth, 
must  be  satisfied  with  no  line  of  study  or  of 
thought  which  deals  simply  with  the  external 
facts.  If  she  is  studying  history,  it  must  be 
to  her  not  a  mere  compilation  of  dates,  of  kings 
and  conquests.   "  Of  what  significance  to  me," 


204  The  Instinct  of  Imitation,  or 

exclaimed  Carlyle,  "  are  the  births,  marriages 
and  deaths  of  a  few  petty  mortals  who  chanced 
to  be  called  kings  and  queens!"  And  truly, 
what  is  the  significance,  unless  we  seek  to  see 
the  slow  dawn  of  freedom  in  the  rise  and  fall 
of  nations, — -a  spiritual  gain  in  the  struggling 
steps  of  the  race  forward?  Is  literature  to  be 
studied  for  the  sake  of  the  beauty  of  style  of 
this  writer,  or  of  the  polished  diction  of  that 
one  ?  Why  have  the  great  books  of  the  world 
lived,  while  thousands  of  rival  productions  have 
sunk  into  oblivion  ?  Has  it  n  ot  been  because 
giant  brains  have  lived  and  labored  amidst 
f^heir  puny  contemporaries,  striving  to  portray 
Truth  so  that  the  dark  labyrinth  of  life  might 
seem  less  dark  to  some  poor  soul?  AVhy  is 
Homer  still  the  world's  great  poet?  Not  from 
beauty  of  expression,  not  from  tenderness  of 
thought,  not  from  power  of  imagery.  Many 
have  equaled  and  surpassed  him  in  these  re- 
spects ;  but  who  has  given  to  us,  so  powerfully 
as  he,  the  great  Soul  struggling  against  the 
restrictions  of  authority?  Who  has  so  well 
portrayed  the  pitifulness  of  uselessness,  of  all 
great  Achilles  sulking  in  their  tents,  even  if 
their  own  followers  are  around  them,  when 
greater  and  more  universal  causes  are  calling 
them?    Mighty  indeed  are  the  lessons  which 


The  Training  of  fhe  Faith.  205 

the  old  bard  lias  taught  us.  So  it  is  with  every 
other  great  book;  it  is  not  its  form  but  its  soul 
which  has  made  it  immortal.  It  is  uot  the 
establishment  of  the  Roman  Catholic  doctrine  of 
hell,  purgatory,  and  paradise;  uot  the  tierce 
punishment  of  his  enemies,  not  even  his  fiery 
imagery,  which  has  made  Dante  the  shrine  at 
which  great  hearts  still  worship.  It  is  rather 
the  awfulness  of  sin,  the  mighty  struggle  out 
of  sin,  the  glory  of  the  redeemed,  pictured  with 
such  grandeur  and  majesty  that  the  liuman 
soul  which  has  approached  the  maguiliceut 
temple  of  the  Divine  Comedy  feels  that  it  has 
renewed  its  own  dignity  and  worth.  Why  is  it 
that  a  Carlyle  cries  out  to  the  souls  struggling 
in  the  hell  of  materialism,  "  Close  thy  Byron, 
open  thy  Goethe  "  ?  Has  Goethe  the  literary 
polish  and  beauty  of  style  of  Lord  Byron?  Is 
it  not  that  his  strange  and  unsurpassed  crea- 
tion of  a  Faust  has  proclaimed  that  all  the  cult- 
ure and  erudition,  all  indulgence,  all  activities, 
cannot  make  life  desirable  until  the  great 
secret  of  living  for  others  has  been  discovered  ? 
How  much  grander  and  more  helpful  becomes 
mythology  when  we  cease  to  study  it  an  a 
source  of  certain  facts  which  every  cultivated 
person  should  know,  and  begin  to  roali/(>  that 
it  ie  the  far-ofiE  voice  of  nations  cuiliug  after 


206  The  Instinct  of  Imitation,  or 

God !  Of  what  use  are  the  stories  o£  the  labors 
of  Hercules,  of  the  wings  of  Mercury,  of  the 
transforming  powers  of  Circe,  or  a  hundred 
other  tales  of  a  childish  race,  save  that  we  see 
portrayed  in  them  the  dim  feeling  of  the  hu- 
man heart  that  man  must  become  the  master  of 
creation,  must  control  the  forces  of  nature  and 
make  them  serve  him,  must  be  able  to  transfer 
himself  with  little  hindrance  from  place  to 
place, — aye,  must  govern  his  appetites  or  be- 
come beastly;  in  a  word,  that  the  God -element 
must  conquer  all  the  material  outer  world! 
Such  truths  are  of  value,  though  put  by  the 
child-race  in  such  crude  form;  they  are  the 
more  serviceable  to  the  mother  from  the  fact 
that  they  are  expressed  in  simple,  mythical 
shape,  as  the  child-mind  is  better  able  to  grasp 
truth  in  its  poetic  than  in  its  abstract  form. 
With  thorough  preparation  within  herself,  any 
mother  will  naturally  and  almost  without  effort 
lead  her  child  to  value  what  she  has  learned  to 
value.  Mothers  who  are  deprived  of  the  gen- 
eral culture  which  books  bring,  can  yet  keep 
alive  in  their  hearts  the  intense  realization  of 
the  all-importance  of  the  unseen  side  of  life ; 
they  can  seek  real  people  for  their  friends 
Over  and  above  all  other  avenues  of  inspiration 
they  can  keep  their  religion  far  beyond  its 


The  Training  of  the  Faifh.  207 

mere  external,  visible  side.     They   can  make 
it  the  sweet    and   holy  impulse   from    within 
which  shall  control  the  inmost  thought  as  well 
as  the  outmost  act.     They  can  make  tlieh-  lives 
such  that  religfion  is  to  them  not  the  mere  qo- 
j  ing  to  church,  the  reading   of  the  Bible,   the 
}  performance  of  any    religious  duty,   but  fhaf 
\  nearness  to  Ood  which  renders  all  these  things 
I  ajoy.     Not  until  the  mother  has  reached  this 
,  state  is  she  ready  to  lead  her  child  beyond  the 
1  petty  temporal  things  of  life,  into  a  realization 
j  of  the  great  and  everlasting  things.   Truly  her 
j  office  is  priestly,  and  great  is  the  reward — the 
^greatest  on  earth.    "A  life  gift"  Froebel  calls 
^this  work  of  hers  for  her  child ;  and  well  may  it 
be  so  called.     Let  her  once  teach  him  to  see 
the  difference  between    the  great    and  little 
things  of  life,  and  she  has  placed  him  where 
no  outside  storms   can  trouble    his    serenity, 
where  no  sickness  nor  poverty  nor  lack  of  suc- 
cess nor  lack  of  popularity  can  give  him  one 
inward  pang.     He  is  master  of  his  own  life. 
;  The  petty  aims  of  shallow  people  do  not  di- 
/  vert  him  from  his  great  purpose,  and  the  world 
exclaims,     "  Truly  a  great  soid  !   Let  ns  draw 
near  and  gain  strength  from  if  ! " 

Does  any  mother-heart  crave  more  recom- 
pense than  this? 


Books  by  Elizabeth  Harrison 

FOR   SALE   BY 

NATIONAL  KINDERGARTEN   COLLEGE 

Chicago 

KINDERGARTEN  BUILDING  GIFTS 

Is  a  valuable  book  for  kindergartners,  primary-grade  teachers  and 
mothers  who  wish  to  use  the  kindergarten  materials  in  their  own 
homes.  It  contains  more  than  two  hundred  illustrative  lessons  and 
many  suggestions  as  to  the  use  of  other  materials  along  with  the  kin- 
dergarten gifts.   List  price,  $1.2$.   Retail  price,  Si.oo.   Postage,  7  cents. 

IN  STORYLAND 

The  success  of  these  stories  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  many 
hundreds  ot  story  books  have  been  issued  since  this  was  published. 
It  has  been  in  existence  for  twelve  years  and  has  reached  its  nine- 
teenth edition  in  .'America.  It  has  been  reprinted  in  England  and 
portions  of  it  translated  into  the  Japanese.  Various  stories  taken 
from  it  have  been  put  fnto  a  dozen  different  school  readers  as  typical 
of  what  the  modern  fairy  tale  should  be.  List  price,  Si. 25,  Retail 
price,  Si. 00.    Postage,  8  cents. 

TWO  CHILDREN  OF  THE  FOOTHILLS 

Has  now  reached  its  filth  edition  and  has  brought  to  us  many  letters 
of  commendation  and  congratulation  that  so  genuine  and  valuable  a 
record  should  have  been  kept  of  the  practical  set  of  kindergarten  prin- 
ciples in  the  daily  life  of  two  little  children.  The  perusal  of  this  book 
will  help  any  mother  in  the  training  and  developing  oi  her  children 
even  if  they  must  be  deprived  of  the  kindergarten.  List  price,  $1.25. 
Retail  price,  $1.00.    Postage,  9  cents. 

SOME  SILENT  TEACHERS 
Is  a  collection  of  lectures  on  deeper  sources  of  culture  and  their  influ- 
ence upon  the  teachers  of  little  children,  be  they  in  schoolroom  or  in 
the  home.  It  is  a  book  that  shows  wide  culture  and  deep  insight,  and  is 
written  to  show  that  much  help  and  many  resources  lie  in  the  com- 
monplace things  about  us.  List  price,  I1.25.  Retail  price,  $1.00. 
Postage,  7  cents. 

THE  VISION  OF  DANTE 
Is  a  'jnique  literary  production  in  that  it  brings  down  to  the  compre- 
hension of  a  little  child  in  the  form  of  a  story  one  of  the  world's  great- 
est poems.    List  price,  S2.00  and  31.50;    Retail  price,  $1.50  and  $1.00. 
Postage,  12  cents. 

MISUNDERSTOOD  CHILDREN 

A  collection  of  the  childish  comedies  and  tragedies  in  the  every 
day  life  about  us. 

Miss  Harrison  is  a  wonderful  observer  of  children.  As  a  Kepler  or 
a  Newton  grasps  the  meaning  of  the  motions  of  the  planets,  so  her 
insight  gives  us  the  interpretation  of  the  acts  of  ch-jdren. — Homcand 
School  Journal.    List  price,  Si. 25.    Postage,  7  cents. 


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